The president of the WBO claims that Terence Crawford’s stint at 154 pounds is already over
Terence Crawford’s super welterweight tenure turned out to be a short one, as WBO president Gustavo Olivieri announced today that “Bud” “will not return” to the division. His interim title, which made him one of Sebastian Fundora’s mandatory challengers, will now cease to exist.
Instead, Olivieri writes, he’ll “recommend to the WBO Championship Committee” that no. 1 contender Xander Zayas (21-0, 13 KO) get the next shot at Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO) within 120 days of Fundora’s clash with Chordale Booker tomorrow evening.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KO) defeated Israil Madrimov in his divisional debut last August, earning both the aforementioned secondary WBO title and the full WBA belt. The latter will presumably go vacant in the near future; Abass Baraou and Yoenis Tellez own the top two spots in their rankings and would make for a hell of a title fight.
With a mega-payday against Canelo Alvarez looming in September, it’s easy to understand why keeping his hardware wouldn’t be a huge priority for Crawford. It’s a sign that the 37-year-old may be treating the Canelo fight as his last hurrah; I suppose we’ll see soon enough.
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