by David P. Greisman

Terence Crawford is the mandatory challenger to World Boxing Organization lightweight titleholder Ricky Burns, and Crawford’s promoter doesn’t want to wait too long to make that fight happen.

“We’re going to be looking to do the lightweight title fight after the first of the year,” said Todd duBoef of Top Rank, speaking at the post-fight press conference following Crawford’s decision win over Andrey Klimov on Oct. 5 on HBO.

Burns suffered a broken jaw in his Sept. 7 bout with Ray Beltran, which ended as a controversial draw. Bob Arum of Top Rank, citing Burns’ promoter, claimed that Burns has been told he’ll be cleared to fight as of the end of December and will be ready in January.

Burns, 30, is 36-2-1 with 11 knockouts. Crawford, 26, is 22-0 with 16 knockouts.

Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com