WBO to Sanction Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov as Interim Title Fight

The World Boxing Organization announced Monday it will sanction Terence Crawford’s planned Aug. 3 bout against Israil Madrimov as an interim title fight, heightening the possibility that the winner will ultimately own two 154-pound titles after the combatants meet in Los Angeles.

Uzbekistan’s Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) already stands as the WBA junior middleweight champion by virtue of his fifth-round TKO of Magomed Kurbanov on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Like that bout, the Los Angeles card – pegged for the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – will occur under the leadership of Saudi Arabia’s chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh.

Headlined by Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), the unbeaten three-division champion and the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world in some analyst’s rankings, this event will be Alalshikh’s U.S. debut and is expected to feature another deep undercard, with reports that Southern California’s former world heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz will be on the bill.

Alalshikh is poised to host two substantial cards in Saudi Arabia on May 18 (the undisputed heavyweight title fight between unbeaten champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk) and June 1 (the undisputed light heavyweight title fight between unbeaten Russian world champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol).

Adding the WBO interim strap to the prize list for the Aug. 3 main event winner is a result of current WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora suffering a broken nose in his March 30 split decision triumph over then-champion Tim Tszyu in Las Vegas.

Fundora was medically suspended until late September by the Nevada Athletic Commission, and the fighter’s promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, has said Fundora, who also wears the WBC 154-pound belt, might not even fight again until December.

As a WBO “super” champion, recently undisputed welterweight champion Crawford has the right to invoke a title shot in nearby weight classes, and he had previously done so even before Tszyu and Fundora fought.

With a Wednesday announcement scheduled in New York to formally publicize his bout with Madrimov, Crawford may ultimately find that the full WBO strap will be his, too, by defeating Madrimov.

Should Fundora opt to fight someone other than Crawford next, he could either relinquish the belt or the WBO board is empowered to ultimately strip him of the strap for not following its mandates.