By Jake Donovan

The year certainly began well enough for Terence Crawford. The unbeaten boxer from Omaha, Nebraska entered 2015 as the reigning lightweight champion and honored in many circles as the 2014 Fighter of the Year.

By the time he received such honors from the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) during its annual awards ceremony in late April, Crawford (26-0, 18KOs) had already added another win and a second title to his resume. A 6th round knockout of Thomas Dulorme earned the southpaw a vacant belt in super lightweight, just six days before receiving his BWAA Fighter of the Year award.

Any chance of repeat honors, however, disappeared when a lack of available TV dates have slowed his career progress. This weekend’s showdown versus Dierry Jean at CenturyLink Center will mark his third Omaha homecoming in the span of his last four fights. Sadly, it also marks just his second fight of 2015, a year where he hoped for twice as many ring appearances.

“You just take ‘em as they come,” an optimistic Crawford told BoxingScene.com on Tuesday of his light activity rate on the year. “I still got a job to do, and gonna do everything I’m supposed to do in the ring this weekend.”

Crawford’s previous two appearances at home played to a sold-out crowd at CenturyLink Center, beginning with his thrilling knockout win over previously unbeaten Yuriorkis Gamboa last June. The night marked the first time ever that HBO – who televises this weekend’s main event live on location (Saturday, 9:30 p.m. ET) – brought its cameras to Omaha for a live boxing telecast. It was also the first title fight to play Omaha in more than 40 years.

The difference between the previous two appearances and this weekend is that Crawford had Nebraska sports fans all to himself. Mid-October is a different story in the college football-crazed state, as the Nebraska Cornhuskers host Northwestern earlier in the afternoon at home in Lincoln, the state capital roughly one hour southwest of Omaha.

Still, tickets sales –while not yet at full capacity – continue to go strong for the state’s one man pro sports franchise. They continue to support the Cornhuskers – a modest 3-4 heading into this weekend – and will always rally behind the local hero whenever he steps into the ring, even when not as often as they or he would like.

“Whenever I come here, I always give the fans something to look forward to,” Crawford says. “I ain’t worried about how much I’ve fought (this year) or what’s in store next year. I’m just looking forward to this fight being electrifying. (Jean) will fight hard, so all I can say is to stay tuned.”

For what he’s accomplished and the talent he possesses, the hope is that fans will get to tune in far more often in the months and years to come. 

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox