Flanagan: Now or Never For Crolla Fight – One or Two Left at 135

By Elliot Foster

Terry Flanagan has admitted that a weight jump is imminent.

The WBO lightweight champion was ringside at Manchester Arena on Saturday to watch Jorge Linares’ points win over fellow Mancunian Anthony Crolla, live on Sky Sports.

Flanagan, who is 31-0 with 12 KOs, is currently in limbo and waiting on a date for his next world title defence.

It was thought that Juan Diaz, the four-time world champion, would be in the opposite corner next time ‘Turbo’ stepped through the ropes, but that talk has now gone quiet.

And despite fights with WBC champion Dejan Zlaticanin, the aforementioned Linares of Venezuela and, as Flanagan’s trainer Steve Maylett put it, “about five people”, not coming to fruition, it looks to be something of a race against time to get into the ring with the champion before he moves up in weight.

“I want to unify the division before I grow out of the weight [135lbs or nine-stone nine pounds],” Flanagan told Kugan Cassius of iFL TV.

“I’m growing out of the weight, it’s killing now to make lightweight.

“I’ve got one, maybe two more fights left at this weight and then I’m going to move up to [super-lightweight].”

Flanagan already has his eyes on titles further up the food chain and, should he not be able to unify at lightweight, that will be the plan.

“We heard that [Terence] Crawford was vacating the WBO [title] at [super-lightweight],” he continued, “so we were going to move up and see if we could fight for that title but that seems to have gone a bit quiet now so if we want to get this fight [with Anthony Crolla] it’s got to happen this year or early next year or I can’t see the fight happening myself.”

Frank Warren, the promoter of Flanagan, has previously stated that he will not stand in the way of his fighter getting in the ring with Matchroom-promoted Crolla –– and that is a sentiment that Maylett, the 29-year-old’s trainer, has echoed.

“On our side, Frank Warren will not stand in the way of letting him [Flanagan] fight,” he said.

“Frank Warren has said [to Terry] if you want to box on Sky, you can do that, or we’ll go to purse bids, but I don’t think Eddie [Hearn] fancies going to purse bids with Frank Warren because he doesn’t go to purse bids, he goes to war.”