Terence Crawford will enter a fourth division next month after already achieving world championship status in three.
The pound-for-pound star from Omaha, Nebraska marked what is extremely likely to be his final bout at welterweight last year when he defeated Errol Spence Jr in excellent fashion to become undisputed.
With his eyes set firmly on a fight against Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez at super-middleweight in the future, ‘Bud’ makes the first tentative step towards the division by moving up to 154 and challenging undefeated 10-0 champion Israil Madrimov, who won the WBA belt against Magomed Kurbanov earlier this year.
Speaking on the fight back in April, Tim Bradley said Crawford would ‘crush’ Madrimov.
“Hey, Crawford beats anybody he steps in the ring with. Anybody. No one beats Terence Crawford. And everybody trying to age him out? Bro, the dude two weeks ago did fifteen four-minute rounds. Twelve with Shakur, three with Shakur’s cousin. Four-minute rounds, thirty seconds rest, think about that. He has a fight when? August. He gonna crush this dude at 54. Madrimov? He gonna crush him.”
As the bout approaches the Hall of Fame fighter turned analyst has adopted a more cautious take, as shown in a recent feature with Pro Box TV.
“The ultimate goal is Terence Crawford wants to face Canelo Alvarez. He’s on the tail end of his career. He said he only had a few fights left and he wants to maximise as much money as he possibly can and that’s the Canelo fight … But, you guys said it, Madrimov is no easy task. Terence has to get past him first.”
