Terence Crawford to return April 20, opponent not yet named

Badlefthook.com

According to a report at ESPN, Terence Crawford will return to action and defend his WBO welterweight title on April 20, promoter Bob Arum says, but an opponent has not yet been named.

Arum does say “it’ll be a very, very interesting fight.”

Crawford (34-0, 25 KO) was expected to return in March or April, and this gives us a date all but set in stone.

The 31-year-old Omaha native fought twice in 2018. He dominated and stopped Jeff Horn on June 9 in Las Vegas to win a world title in a third weight class. He then defended that title in a grudge match with Jose Benavidez Jr in October in Omaha. Crawford stopped Benavidez in the 12th and final round, putting an exclamation point on another strong performance with just 18 seconds remaining in the bout.

Crawford is considered by most to be one of the top two pound-for-pound fighters in boxing today, alongside lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko.

The main rumor for Crawford’s next bout has been Amir Khan (33-4, 20 KO), who has reportedly received a significant money offer for a bout with Crawford, who is low on intriguing dance partners with the 147-pound division all but owned by the Premier Boxing Champions stable, who control many of the division’s top names.

Khan signed with Matchroom Boxing before returning in April of last year for a win over Phil Lo Greco, and it was expected that the end goal there was to match Khan against longtime press rival Kell Brook. But as we’ve been over many, many times in the last couple of months, it now looks like that won’t happen, and the Crawford offer may be the reason why.

Surely, we’ll find out soon enough.