Oh, boxing. As they have been for years, the IBF continues to be the most strict sanctioning body in the sport. With the IBF already ordering a purse bid for Terence Crawford to defend their belt against Sergey Lipinets on August 31st, Crawford has reportedly instead elected to drop the belt rather than making such a quick turn around.
Eleven days ago on August 19th, Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) completely unified the junior welterweight division by holding all four world titles following his third round destruction of Julius Indongo on ESPN. In doing so, he became only the second fighter ever to accomplish the feat in the four belt era, following only the great Bernard Hopkins. Unlike Hopkins, however, Crawford is not going to be able to make a defense of all four belts.
Instead of agreeing to a August 31st purse bid to fight talented but lesser known PBC fighter Sergey Lipinets (12-0, 10 KOs), Crawford has given up the IBF belt. Soon Lipinets will undoubtedly be given a vacant title shot. Their next highest ranked fighter in the division is Japanese non-contender Akahiro Kondo (29-6-1, 16 KOs), but that is a pretty absurd ranking. I do not have him in the entire S8C Top 25, let alone as my number three fighter. Hopefully he passes on the thrashing as Maurice Hooker (23-0-3, 16 KOs), the fighter below him, would be a much better opponent.
It remains to be seen if Terence Crawford will defend any of these belts or immediately move to welterweight. While that division is full of money fights for the pound for pound elite, he may have trouble getting them as Al Haymon and his PBC team largely control the division. All Top Rank would have to offer there would be the Horn/Pacquiao II winner, Jessie Vargas, or, god forbid, the shell of Mike Alvarado. Crawford may need to get himself named a mandatory challenger if he wants a Keith Thurman or Errol Spence Jr, but then again Top Rank and PBC could surprise us and work together for a big fight too. Their formerly ice cold relationship has thawed a little over the last year or so.
Source: BoxingScene.com
