By Allan Fox: WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) was one of the three candidates that were in the running for the April 9th fight against superstar Manny Pacquiao on HBO pay-per-view. Pacquiao for whatever reason chose not to fight Crawford and instead go with what he felt was a good choice of opponent in Tim Bradley.
This will be Pacquiao’s third fight against Bradley, and it is not a fight that fans were calling for. Crawford is now looking to make the best of things by getting back in the ring next month on February 27 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum does not yet have an opponent for him, but Hank Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs) is someone they are looking to put in with him.
Lundy reportedly is the best guy that they can get right now for Crawford. Mauricio Herrera, the fighter they wanted, chose not to take the fight. Top Rank promotes WBC light welterweight champion Victor Postol, but that is not a fight that they are going to be putting together next.
It’s unclear when or if Crawford will ever fight Postol. Lundy is not in the same league as guys like Postol, Herrera, Lucas Matthysse or Lamont Peterson, but he is an opponent that Top Rank can get for Crawford at this short notice. The problem that Crawford has is he was waiting around for a long time looking to see if he would get the fight against Pacquiao. It was not until last week that Pacquiao finally revealed that he’ll be fighting Bradley next. The late decision by Pacquiao left Crawford and his promoters at Top Rnk very little time to find a good opponent.
In the future when Crawford becomes a bigger name, it will be easier for him to get opponents. Right now, he’s still not a big enough name for him to get guys quickly the way stars like Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are able to do.
This will be Crawford’s second defense of his World Boxing Organization 140lb title. It’s unclear how much longer he plans on keeping the belt before moving up to the welterweight division to look for bigger and better things for himself. There is nothing at 140 for Crawford unfortunately. If he stays at 140, the best that he can probably hope for is a fight against Postol. That’s a fight that would please the hardcore boxing fans, to be sure, but it wouldn’t do much for the casual fans of the sport. Crawford needs to move up to welterweight so that he can go after fighters like Kell Brook.
Crawford is a very good fighter, but he’s being wasted away right now by not being put in good fights. The only really quality opponent that Crawford has faced during his career is Yuriorkis Gamboa, and that was a fight in which Crawford was facing a guy that started his career out as a featherweight. Crawford needs to be matched better by Top Rank, preferably against some of the big names at 147, because he’s not going anywhere at 140.
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