LAS VEGAS – The Terence Crawford-Kell Brook fight finally was announced Saturday night.
Crawford and Brook agreed to terms last month for their 12-round welterweight title fight November 14, but it wasn’t made official until it was confirmed during ESPN’s broadcast of the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Teofimo Lopez lightweight title unification fight. The site of the Crawford-Brook card wasn’t announced during the broadcast, but it is expected to take place within the Top Rank/ESPN “Bubble” at MGM Grand Conference Center.
All of the Top Rank shows ESPN has aired or streamed from the United States since June 9 have been held at MGM Grand Conference Center due to COVID-19 restrictions. Promoter Bob Arum, whose company represents Crawford, considered bringing the Crawford-Brook bout to Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford’s hometown, but Arum and the rest of Top Rank’s decision-makers think it is safer for the fighters and everyone else involved to hold it at MGM Grand.
ESPN will televise the Crawford-Brook card live. The network also aired the Lomachenko-Lopez show live Saturday night.
Crawford, 33, will defend his WBO welterweight title against England’s Brook. The 34-year-old Brook, a former IBF welterweight champ, has not weighed in lower than 150 pounds for any of his three fights since Errol Spence Jr. (26-0, 21 KOs) stopped him in the 11th round of their 12-round, 147-pound championship match in May 2017 in Sheffield, England, Brook’s hometown.
Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) is willing to go back down to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds for the opportunity to become a two-time champion against one of the top three boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, will fight for the first time in almost a year. The three-division champion hasn’t boxed since he knocked down Lithuania’s Egidijus Kavaliauskas (22-1-1, 18 KOs) three times and stopped him in the ninth round December 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.