Dean Lonergan, promoter for WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), believes his boxer is one victory away from gaining the sought after status of being recognized as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.

Horn is on his way to making a mandatory defense against mandatory challenger Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs).

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes Crawford, is trying to finalize the fight for April 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Both Horn and Crawford had very big years in 2017.

Horn erupted on the boxing scene after pulling off a major upset decision over Manny Pacquiao to capture the WBO world title last July before a crowd of over 51,000 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

He then retained the belt in December, with an eleven round stoppage victory over British boxer Gary Concoran.

Crawford started off 2017 with a stoppage win over Olympic gold medal winner Felix Diaz. He then unified the entire junior welterweight division by knocking out Julius Indongo to unify the IBF, WBC, WBA, WBO world titles.

Not long after that win, Crawford announced that he was vacating the belts to make a move to the welterweight division. The WBO then made him the mandatory challenger to Horn.

“This will be an absolutely massive fight night. Jeff Horn fighting against one the best fighters in the world…(Horn) fighting for his right to be recognised as not only one of the best fighters but the best fighter in the world," Lonergan said.

“If you beat the pound-for-pound fighter, what do you become? This is Jeff’s chance to stamp his authority on the welterweight division and it’s also his chance to make a statement to the entire boxing world, particularly to the American critics and the American boxing public.

“We are going to the home of boxing and this is about as big as it gets.’’