By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Terence Crawford hasn’t ruled out traveling to Australia for a shot at the WBO welterweight title.
Brian McIntyre, Crawford’s trainer and co-manager, made it abundantly clear, though, that Crawford will need to be extremely well-compensated to fight Jeff Horn in the champion’s homeland. Crawford is the mandatory challenger for the WBO 147-pound championship, which Horn will defend for the first time Wednesday night against England’s Gary Corcoran in Brisbane, Australia.
The former undisputed 140-pound champion will face the Horn-Corcoran winner in his next fight. Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs), who upset Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision to win the title July 2 in Brisbane, is an 8-1 favorite over Corcoran (17-1, 7 KOs).
McIntyre hopes Horn, if he overcomes Corcoran, would be enticed financially to defend his title against Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States.
“I think that they’re gonna bring that fight over to the United States,” McIntyre told BoxingScene.com. “I think that’s what [promoter] Bob [Arum] is pushing for. But if it happens over there and they give us a boatload of money – I said a boatload of money – like they did Pacquiao, I don’t know, we might consider it.”
If a Horn-Crawford fight does wind up in Australia, McIntyre wouldn’t be concerned about Horn having an advantage.
“We always go in the ring with the mindset of dominating the fight, so you won’t have to leave it in the hands of the judges,” McIntyre said. “That’s what your mindset would be and if the knockout comes, we would take it.”
Arum, Crawford’s promoter, told BoxingScene.com recently that they’ll at least have to consider facing Horn in Australia if Horn wins Wednesday night because it could make the most financial sense. If Corcoran wins, Arum figures a Corcoran-Crawford fight would take place in the United States.
Arum, whose company co-promotes Horn, is in Australia for a fight ESPN will televise live Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. ET. Crawford and McIntyre were going to take that long trip with Arum to watch the Horn-Corcoran fight from ringside, but they ultimately decided against going.
“I’ve seen Corcoran,” McIntyre said. “He’s kind of big and he’ll put pressure on Horn. It’s gonna be an interesting fight. I don’t know if [Horn is] gonna win or not.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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