WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) has promised to pull off another shocker in 2018.
Back in July, Horn shook up the welterweight ranks when he secured an unexpected upset decision win over eight division Manny Pacquiao before a crowd of 51,000 at the Suncorp Stadium Brisbane.
But another top fighter as his sights set to Horn - former undisputed junior welterweight world champion Terence Crawford.
Crawford (32-0), who announced that he was moving up to 147-pounds and immediately began to vacate his titles, was recently appointed by the World Boxing Organization as the mandatory challenger to Horn's world title.
Crawford is promoted by Bob Arum of Top Rank, who also has options on Horn.
Horn is first scheduled to make a voluntary defense of the World Boxing Organisation title against British contender Gary Corcoran on December 13 at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
After that fight, Horn is looking to take a lot of time off - as his wife is due with their first child in January.
Because of the planned period of inactivity, Horn is not sure that he will be ready in time for a proposed date of April 7th to make a defense against Crawford.
“At the moment with all the events and promotions I have to attend everything is flying by so fast it’s like the weeks have become days,” Horn said to Fox Sports. “It’s more than four months since I beat Manny Pacquiao at Suncorp but it feels like yesterday.
"I’m very keen to fight Terence Crawford. They’ve made him the top contender for my title and he has a great record but I know I can beat him like I beat Pacquiao. We’ll just have to see about the timing of the fight and when it happens.
"I want to have a holiday with my wife and the baby. We probably can’t go far for a while but maybe we’ll go down to O’Reilly’s (in the Gold Coast hinterland) again. It’s beautiful down there. I’m super excited about becoming a dad. It will be the highlight of my life and I want to enjoy some time with my wife and new baby before I start training for the next fight.”
