Terence Crawford Has Ten Days To Decide His Future

Current WBO interim junior middleweight titlist and WBA junior middleweight champ Terence Crawford has ten more days to decide his next career move.

The WBO has granted the four-division world champ a ten-day extension on their deadline for him to negotiate his mandated shot at their full 154 lb. champ Sebastian Fundora before a purse bid is ordered. Ultimately, though, the extension is really about him and his team deciding his next career move.

Crawford has been pining away for a big-ticket bout with Mexican superstar and (now) three-belt super middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. But while he’s been trying to purse an apparently mostly disinterested Alvarez, he did manage to snag the WBA title as well as the interim WBO belt against Israil Madrimov on August 3 and, with it, a shot at Fundora.

Per the WBO:

“On August 28, 2024, this Committee issued the negotiation order for the mandatory between WBO Jr. Middleweight Champion, Sebastian Fundora and WBO Interim Jr. Middleweight Champion, Terence Crawford to terminate the Interim Champion status per WBO policy.

Per the order rendered, the parties were granted 30 days to strike a deal or purse bid proceedings would be called in accordance with WBO Regulations of World Championship Contests.

On September 30, 2024, the WBO acknowledged receipt of an email communication by Attorney, Mr. Harrison Whitman, on behalf of Terrence Crawford requesting a 10-day extension of the negotiation period to continue discussion towards an agreement as ordered. On the same day, Sebastian Fundora’s promoter Mr. Sampson Lewkowicz ratified the aforesaid petition via email agreeing to the extension.”

The awkward 6-foot-5 Fundora decisioned then-defending WBO champ Tim Tszyu in a bloody battle back in late March and also picked up the vacant WBC junior middleweight title with the victory. Rumors of an Errol Spence bout with Fundora never got past media rumor status and, by all accounts, this possible meeting with Crawford was always the firm plan A for team Fundora.

Crawford’s decision is pretty simple and straightforward when it comes to a Fundora bout.

If he thinks he has a real shot at landing a Canelo Alvarez blockbuster, he’ll vacate his WBO interim title and go directly into that pay-per-view clash at the higher weight class.

If Canelo is not a realistic option, then he will most likely go for the Fundura title shot. A victory there would give him three of the four belts in the 154 lb. division and put him one win away from the historic feat of becoming a unified four-belt champ in three consecutive weight classes (140, 147, and 154). If he takes this career path, he’d then target the winner of the October 19 Bakhram Murtazaliev-Tim Tszyu IBF junior middleweight title fight.

There’s also the possibility of the 37-year-old Crawford being able to have the best of both worlds, with a Fundora bout possible before the end of this year and a Canelo clash in May.