By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Terence Crawford is no longer the champion of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight division officially announced on August 13, 2024.
A week after clinching the World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight belt when he scored a unanimous decision win over Israil Madrimov, the WBO officially listed him out of title contention.
With the middleweight division limit at 147 pounds, Crawford’s decision to move up to junior middleweight resulted in the consequence.
According to multiple reports, Crawford was already given a notice that he would be stripped of his belt if he remained uninterested in defending his belt at the 147-lbs division.
His decision to challenge Madrimov for the higher weight class then forced the WBO to kick off their proposed plan which ended in mutual terms with the Crawford camp.
Several months ago, Crawford already announced that he was willing to move up weight to search for more title belts, and eyeing a fight with Canelo Alvarez became one of his goals.
However, talks about the Crawford-Alvarez mega fight instantly evaporated when the Mexican pound-for-pound great reportedly asked for a high prize money from the organizers.
On the other hand, Crawford and his camp expressed their dismay over the negotiations, as they were already close to preparing against Alvarez.
With his recent championship win in the junior middleweight division, Crawford is expected to hunt more title holders in the division, but specific names are yet to appear on their hit list.
Replacing Crawford as the mandatory champion in the WBO welterweight division is no. 1 challenger Brian Norman Jr. who holds a professional boxing record of 26 wins, no losses, and 23 knockouts.
It is still unknown if Crawford is willing to move down again to welterweight and reclaim his belts and no word from their camp is confirmed if he will be challenging Norman Jr. next year.
