By Gav Duthie: We recently welcomed a new undefeated champion to the Jnr Welterweight division in Terrence Crawford. The American moved up in weight because he didn’t feel there were enough fights or financial reward in the lightweight class but in my opinion the 140lb division could be going the same way. There has always been a temptation in the last few years for light welterweight fighters to chase the likes of Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. and now that he and Manny Pacquiao are fighting we are now looking towards a new 147lb king.
The recent clash between Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia and Lamont Peterson at a catch-weight of 143lbs as well as other movements have caused me to question the immediate future of the 140lb division as a top weight class.
What is currently happening?
WBC
After Lucas Matthyse’s win over Ruslan Provodnikov he has now been positioned as the mandatory challenger for Danny Garcia’s WBC title. The organization have mandated a fight between Danny and undefeated Ukrainian challenger Viktor Postol 26-0 (11). The winner of this bout would need to fight the Argentine Matthysse next. The fact is we all know that Garcia is more likely to ignore these requests and move up to the welterweight division. He has been quite clear on these intentions regarding the move but has obviously not formally stated this to the governing bodies.
As a result we may see Matthysse face Postol for the vacant title. When this will be who knows. The governing bodies WBC and WBA have been extremely lax on letting Garcia do what he wants and it is about time they pressure him into either defending his titles or vacating them.
WBA
Again, Danny Garcia needs to signal his intentions or lose the title. Seeing as Garcia is the WBA super light welterweight champion it is likely that Jessie Vargas would just become the main champion.
IBF
Cesar Cuenca 47-0 (2) v Ik Yang 19-0 (14)?
This is the most underwhelming of the titles. The IBF were unhappy with Lamont Peterson facing Garcia at a catch-weight rather than defending his title. They state that if he lost the fight he would lose his title. It is as yet unclear if this is to be the case but if Peterson has lost his title the challengers in waiting are quite uninspiring. Ranked number 1 is Argentine boxer Cesar Cuenca 47-0 (2) and number 2 Chinese Ik Yang 19-0 (14). For anyone to win 45 fights by decision is impressive, that I do not dispute but seriously 2 knockouts. This makes Maliggnaggi look like Mike Tyson. If the top 2 ranked fighters were to battle for the IBF title this would seriously negatively effect the divisions reputation.
WBO
Terrence Crawford is the new champion and has a bright future in the game. It looks like his biggest fight prospects will be out with the champions i.e Adrien Broner and Lucas Matthysse. Former champion Chris Algieri has decided to stay in the welterweight division to fight Amir Khan. He was unhappy at losing the WBO 140lb title when he moved up to face Manny Pacquiao.
The future
Hopefully at least one of the two fighters Lamont Petersen or Danny Garcia stays at 140. There are good fights out there for either of them particularly Adrien Broner who both would have a good chance. I think the light welterweight division might struggle for a while as Garcia, Peterson, Khan, Brook, Thurman and others chase the throne left by Mayweather and Pacquiao when they retire.
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