By Keith Idec
The Nevada State Athletic Commission confirmed the officials Tuesday for the Jeff Horn-Terence Crawford welterweight title fight.
The NSAC confirmed during its monthly meeting that one Australian judge, Ignatius Missailidis, has been assigned to judge the 12-round, 147-pound title bout between Australia’s Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), the WBO welterweight champion, and Omaha, Nebraska’s Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), the mandatory challenger for his title, April 14 in Las Vegas. The other two judges will be Nevada’s Burt Clements and Italy’s Guido Cavalleri.
The NSAC also assigned Nevada’s Tony Weeks as the referee for Horn-Crawford.
The NSAC’s assignment of judges and a referee were the first official signs that the card headlined by Horn-Crawford will take place April 14 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which promotes Crawford and co-promotes Horn, hasn’t officially announced the card, which will include two additional title fights.
Tickets haven’t gone on sale for the event, despite that it’ll take place four weeks from Saturday night. An announcement is “imminent,” a source told BoxingScene.com on Tuesday.
Arum initially indicated that the card would be an ESPN Pay-Per-View venture. That was when Filipino star Manny Pacquiao was expected to meet Mike Alvarado as part of the card.
Pacquiao ultimately declined that opportunity and is pursuing a fight against WBA welterweight champ Lucas Matthysse on June 24 in Malaysia.
Four weeks isn’t typically enough time to properly promote a pay-per-view event. Top Rank has an exclusive content deal with ESPN, but hasn’t confirmed whether the fight will air live on ESPN.
The card also will feature WBO super bantamweight champ Jessie Magdaleno and IBF super flyweight champ Jerwin Ancajas in separate bouts.
Las Vegas’ Magdaleno (25-0, 18 KOs) will defend his 122-pound championship against Ghana’s Isaac Dogboe (18-0, 12 KOs). The Philippines’ Ancajas (29-1-1, 20 KOs) will defend his 115-pound crown against fellow Filipino Jonas Sultan (14-3, 9 KOs).
The NSAC assigned officials for those two bouts as well.
The referee for Magdaleno-Dogboe will be New Jersey’s Benjy Esteves. It’ll be judged by Nevada’s Eric Cheek, Nevada’s Dave Moretti and New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld.
The referee for Ancajas-Sultan will be Nevada’s Russell Mora. That fight will be judged by Nevada’s Tim Cheatham, Connecticut’s Glenn Feldman and Connecticut’s Don Trella.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
