Terence Crawford revealed his plans on moving up to 154 to challenge the winner of the March 30th clash between WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu and Keith Thurman.
It’s a move that fans have expected Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) to take, considering that he’s not interested in fighting the young phenom Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to try and win back his stripped IBF welterweight title.
Crawford on the Challenge Ahead
“Tszyu’s got a tough fight in front of him with Thurman,” Crawford said to the media “Hopefully, after that fight we can see the next move. We’ve got a few guys on the roster for my next fight – Tszyu/Thurman is one of them.”
Crawford’s move in fighting the winner of Tszyu vs. Thurman gives him the best opportunity to make a load of dough. A fight against the popular Australian Tszyu (24-0, 17 KOs) would be big in Australia and enable Crawford to take advantage of the PPV money from that country.
Smart Money and Legacy Building
Tszyu is a big PPV star in Australia, and Crawford can make a lot of money fighting him rather than a dangerous younger fighter like Boots Ennis, who is still unknown at this early stage of his career.
Former WBA and WBC welterweight champion Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) would also be an excellent fight for Crawford if he’s victorious against Tszyu.
The 35-year-old Thurman isn’t the fighter he once was when he was younger, active, and still popular, but the older boxing fans know him. Thurman’s ability to sell fights would make a clash between him and Crawford successful. It could do excellent numbers depending on how well it’s marked.
Potential Complications
What’s unknown is if PBC and Amazon Prime will last long enough for a fight between Crawford to face the Tszyu-Thurman winner. It could be that Crawford would be better off choosing a non-PBC-affiliated fighter, just in case.
The last thing Crawford needs is more inactivity because he hasn’t fought since July, and he’s only been fighting once a year since 2020. What a waste.
Some would argue that Crawford could have made so much more money if he’d stayed active, fighting three times a year since 2020, but he chose not to, and now he’s in a rush to fill his bank account with dough before leaving the sport.
