Horn wants $4 million for Crawford fight

By Boxing News - 12/18/2017 - Comments

Image: Horn wants $4 million for Crawford fight

By Chris Williams: If Terence Crawford wants a shot at WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn, it’s going to cost him $4 million. According to Fight News, Horn, 29, wants $4M for him to defend his belt against mandatory challenger Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs).

Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs) is said to have been offered $2 million to face 42-year-old Australian Anthony Mundine (47-9, 27 KOs). That figure is a double what the Australian Horn made for his recent voluntary title defense against Gary Corcoran (17-2, 7 KOs) last week on December 13 in Brisbane, Australia.

Horn made $1 million for the defense against Corcoran, and how his management wants a bump up to $4 million for the Crawford fight. You can understand why. The undefeated and highly respected Crawford, 30, is a significant threat to Horn’s title reign. It’s one of the biggest fights that can be made in the welterweight division at this time, so it seems logical for Team Horn to want to get the most money out of the fight.

“I can tell you now, Jeff won’t be fighting Crawford for $1 million,” said Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan said to the Courier Mail. ”This is a huge fight, pitting a man who beat an 11-time world champ (Pacquiao) against a fighter who is unbeaten in 32 bouts and regarded by many as the world’s best boxer, pound-for-pound. This will be one of the biggest fights in the world in 2018.”

If Horn doesn’t get the money he wants for the Crawford fight, he’ll almost surely take the match against Mundine for $2 million. That fight will likely take place at 154. It would be up to the World Boxing Organization to determine whether or not if they’ll strip Horn of his WBO 147 lb. title The WBO could give belt to Crawford or have him fight for the vacant title against the next highest available contender in the WBO’s top 15 rankings. It would be a lose-lose situation for Crawford and his promoters at Top Rank if he’s given the WBO strap without fighting Horn.

Top Rank is trying to turn Crawford into a pay-per-view star in the sport, as Manny Pacquiao is heading towards retirement. There isn’t anyone in the Top Rank stable to take his place as a PPV fighter as of yet. Crawford needs Horn’s scalp to increase his popularity enough for him to become a PPV guy. If Horn deprives Crawford the chance to beat him, it would slow the Nebraska native’s progress in becoming a PPV attraction for Top Rank.

Horn would make good money fighting a unification match against the other welterweight champions Keith Thurman and Errol Spence Jr. Thurman will be taking a tune-up fight when her returns to the ring in early 2018. Spence is scheduled to fight Lamont Peterson on January 20. Horn could sidestep the Crawford fight if he can get a unification against Spence or Thurman. It’s doubtful that either of those fights would make as much money for Horn as the $2 million he’ll get for fighting Mundine.

Horn is having a hard time making weight for the welterweight division. It’s unknown how much longer he can melt down to make the 147 lb. limit without it hurting his performances.