By Andreas Hale

They keep trying to tell us that boxing is dead but the sweet science just isn’t listening.

And if the announcement that Terence Crawford will move up to a very crowded and competitive welterweight division tells us anything, it’s that we have a plethora of intriguing fights ahead of us.

Hopefully.

As good as boxing has been over past couple of years, there’s always a chance that the ego of the promoters will get in the way of the fights we want to see. Fortunately, cooler heads have prevailed in the interest of giving the fans what they want. But with Crawford moving up to 147, the promoters are going to have to play nice in order to see one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world compete against the finest that the division has to offer.

There will be time to get this all figured out as Crawford has been announced as the mandatory for the winner of the December 13th WBO welterweight showdown between Jeff Horn and Gary Corocran. The target date for Crawford to face the winner is currently March 10th, on ESPN. And assuming that Crawford defeats Horn, just about every opponent ranked in the top 10 is promoted by Showtime and/or Premier Boxing Champions.

Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia are all on the other side of the tracks and all four are fighters that Crawford needs to face in order to prove that he’s the king of the welterweight division. Otherwise, he might as well be competing in another universe.

The challenge is that Crawford is not quite a boxing superstar yet and PBC/Showtime don’t necessarily “need” him. And with the opportunity to play musical chairs with the top fighters in the division, that forces Crawford to be on the outside looking in.

To make the situation a bit more challenging, Thurman recently said that he saw a fight with Spence Jr. materializing in late 2018 or early 2019. If that’s the time frame, you can certainly count Crawford out of a fight with either of the current top two fighters as PBC/Showtime won’t do anything to jeopardize that fight from happening. As for Garcia and Porter, it’s likely that those two will meet in the ring at some point within the next 18 months.

Where does that leave Crawford?

Well, there’s always the fight with Manny Pacquiao. Of course, the fight is more cosmetic than competitive. It would help thrust Crawford into the spotlight that he already deserves to be in. Sure, Pacquiao is far from the wrecking machine that stampeded through multiple weight classes, but he’s still a name that Crawford could use on his resume. More importantly, it would help a great deal for Arum to usher in the new era by putting the old one to rest.

Unfortunately, nobody knows if Pacquiao will fight again because, as he has said on numerous occasions, he doesn’t have the time to train.

But the move to 147 was absolutely necessary. Crawford had no business left at 140 and the announcement will have everyone talking. Even if you aren’t completely in tune with lines drawn by promoters, the mere inquiry about when Crawford will fight Thurman or Spence. And that pressure could move the two sides to eventually work out a deal to get Crawford in the ring with one of the top four names.

Until then, he’ll likely fight Jeff Horn in March and, if the Pacquiao fight doesn’t materialize, square off with Jesse Vargas toward the end of 2018. Hopefully by then things will shake out between Thurman, Porter, Spence and Garcia with a pecking order intact. As long as everything plays out quickly without immediate rematches mucking up the division, Crawford should find himself in position to land a fight with whoever sits on top of the 147 pound division in early 2019.

This is all wishful thinking. But at least we’re able to have these conversations. And the conversations alone are enough to get excited over. Crawford has been one of boxing’s best for quite some time now but has been trapped under the Top Rank umbrella where the options are thin at 147. But perhaps that will change and Crawford will get the opportunities he deserves as one of the best the sport has to offer. And those opportunities will hopefully allow him to become the superstar that boxing needs.