By Steve Kim

On Saturday night at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska, Terence Crawford successfully defended his WBO super lightweight title by stopping Dierry Jean in ten rounds. With the victory, which improved his record to a perfect 27-0 (19 KO's), he may have moved himself a step closer to facing Manny Pacquiao in 2016.

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes both boxers, detailed the process that will take place from this point forward.

"Well, what happens is this; this fight on Saturday, because we can't rely on Manny seeing it in the Philippines, we had a tape sent to Mike (Koncz, Pacquiao's adviser), who's sending it to Manny. So by Tuesday or Wednesday he'll have seen the fight, if he hasn't already," explained the veteran promoter to BoxingScene.com.

"And then we're going to wait for November 7th to see what comes out of the (Tim)Bradley-(Brandon) Rios fight and at that point - and let's assume as far as Bradley's concerned or Rios - whoever wins, we may have to wait another two weeks to see if 'Canelo' (Saul Alvarez) beats (Miguel) Cotto because the winner of Bradley-Rios could also fit against 'Canelo'.

"So sometime before the end of November I will probably fly to the Philippines with Mike and we will go over everything and make our decision."

Arum indicates that if Pacquiao is successful in his bid for a senate seat back in his homeland, the upcoming contest will be his final professional fight.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.