By Steve Kim

It was believed that the impending match-up between defending WBO welterweight belt-holder Jeff Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs) and mandatory challenger Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) would take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 21st. But it looks like some scheduling issues with the venue could move that fight to the east coast.

The problem that has come up, is the Las Vegas NHL team, the Knights, are in first place and appear likely to land in the playoffs.

Because of that possibility, the MGM is unable to guarantee the date of April 21 to Top Rank.

"What happened with T-Mobile, it's a very popular arena, it's doing extraordinarily well and they have a contract with the hockey team which sells out and everything. So they got the league (NHL) to move a perspective date for the playoffs," explained promoter, Bob Arum, who will be staging this event, to BoxingScene.com.

"Nobody knows who's going to be in the playoffs, yet, it's only half the season. But if they are, the league said,'there's no way we'll give Las Vegas a home game on the 14th (of April) because they have a Justin Timberlake concert they wanted to go with.

"So they, AEG, are reluctant to go to the league again and also clear the 21st. So they couldn't assure us that the 21st would be clear and therefore we're looking at the 14th at Madison Square Garden."

Last May when Crawford stopped Felix Diaz in ten rounds it was in the big room of the Garden. Back in February of 2016, Crawford performed at the Theater at MSG, halting Hank Lundy in five.

Horn was last seen in action back in December when he stopped voluntary challenger Gary Corcoran of the UK. Last week, Horn and his team revealed that a deal was reached for a fight with Crawford.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.