For the past four years Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford the former IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO World Welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford only defended his WBO title once a year.
Except for the heavyweight division, all other weight classes require two defenses a year and at least one of them against the top contender unless it’s a unification bout as a possibility.
Going back to 2020 Crawford went eleven months before defending against Kell ‘Special’ Brook, 39-2, in November of 2020. He had stopped Amir Kahn, 33-4, and Egidijus Kavalianuskas, 21-0-1, in 2019. He had won the title by stopping Jeff Horn, 18-0-1, in August of 2018.
In 2021, in his only defense, Crawford stopped Shawn Porter, 31-3-1, in Las Vegas, Nevada. In December of 2022 he stopped David Avanesyan, 29-3-1, in Omaha, Nebraska, thirteen months after defeating Porter.
In Crawford’s last fight in July of 2023 in a unification fight he stopped WBA, WBC and IBF champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence, Jr., 28-0. There was to be a two-fight deal, but spence said he would move to super welterweight not wanting the rematch.
Crawford kept trying to move up to super middleweight and challenge the champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who chose to defend his title against his own weight contenders except being beaten attempting to move up to light heavyweight again, losing.
In August of this year, Crawford decided to move up to super welterweight taking on WBA champion Israil ‘The Dream’ Madrimov, 10-0-1, in LA., California, along with fighting for the vacant WBO interim title.
Since leaving the welterweight division, IBF Interim champion Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, 31-0 with 28 stoppages, had taken over as the main man winning the IBF title.
Ennis signed with Eddie Hearn (Matchoom Boxing) and looks like the most likely replacement for Crawford, who will be defending against his No. 1 contender in Cody Crowley, 22-0 with 9 stoppages, on July 13th.
Hearn offered the new WBA champion a unification bout but was turned down. Crowley was also the No. 1 contender in the WBC, but, in a recent press conference, said, “Ennis is the best in the division, so I agreed to fight him.”
Both he and Ennis haven’t fought for a year come July. Hearn had hoped for a Crawford and Ennis match which fell through with Crawford moving up in weight. He claimed he wanted a bigger money fight but it doesn’t look like this is going to be the one.
Having had only one a year for the past four years, Crawford was fortunate he wasn’t stripped of his titles.
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