As a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan, Terence Crawford couldn’t ask for any better platform to formally announce his next fight.
The unbeaten three-division and reigning welterweight titlist has officially signed for a mandatory title defense versus undefeated challenger Egidijus ‘Mean Machine’ Kavialauskas. The bout will take place Dec. 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with ESPN to televise live immediately following network coverage of the annual Heisman Trophy awards ceremony.
ESPN will also begin cross promotion for the event, as Crawford (35-0, 26KOs) will serve as a guest host during the network’s ‘NFL Countdown’ pre-game show ahead of Monday night’s rivalry game between the Packers and Detroit Lions.
Crawford was live in attendance for a similarly slotted Packers game on this very weekend one year ago, only as a post-fight victory lap following his 12th round stoppage of Jose Benavidez Jr. The bout aired live on ESPN that preceding Saturday, playing to an average of 2.245 million viewers in serving as the most watched televised bout of 2018. It was also the second best ratings pull for boxing on ESPN in the 21st century, topped only by Top Rank’s first show under a new pact with the network as Jeff Horn scored an upset—and highly questionable—12-round decision win over Manny Pacquiao atop a July 2017 show which averaged more than 2.8 million viewers.
Following Monday’s network appearance, Crawford will resume training camp for the third defense of the welterweight title he claimed in a one-sided knockout of Horn last June.
“Egidijus Kavaliauskas is a two-time Olympian and I can’t take him lightly,” insists Crawford, who has habitually attended Packers games through the years, whether at Lambeau Field or elsewhere. “He’s got everything to gain and nothing to lose and that makes him dangerous. I never overlook any opponent, and this will be no exception.”
The bout will mark Crawford’s fifth appearance on an ESPN platform, beginning with his 3rd round knockout of Julius Indongo in Aug. 2017 to become undisputed junior welterweight champion. His aforementioned bout with Benavidez was the lone other to take place on ESPN’s lineal network, with his knockout win over Horn taking place on ESPN+ and his most recent bout—a 6th round stoppage of former 140 pound titlist Amir Khan in April—airing live atop a poorly performing ESPN Pay-Per-View telecast.
Everything about his next fight is a strong indication of the network putting its promotional muscle all the way behind his career. His bout with Kavaliauskas (21-0-1, 17KOs) marks the third straight year that ESPN and Top Rank will present a live boxing event immediately following the presentation of the Heisman Trophy. Fellow pound-for-pound entrant Vasiliy Lomachenko has headlined the previous two cards, both playing to favorable ratings.
The same figures to play out for Crawford, although his opponent has plenty to say about it.
“I have prepared my whole boxing career for a fight of this magnitude,” insists Kavialauskas, a two-time Oympian (2008 and 20012) for Lithuania who now lives and trains in Oxnard, California. “Terence Crawford is an excellent fighter, but I fear no man. Nobody has seen the best of the ‘Mean Machine’ yet. I am going to shock a lot of people on December 14, but it won’t be a surprise to me. I earned this title shot. It is my time.”
Until proven otherwise, the defending champ is of the belief that prime time is his time.
“I’ll be ready for anything and everything he brings on December 14 when I return to my second home, Madison Square Garden, and live on ESPN,” promises Crawford.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox