Terence Crawford and Oscar Valdez to fight in UK

Terence Crawford and Oscar Valdez considered by Top Rank for UK fights after Vasyl Lomachenko success vs Luke Campbell

World boxing stars Terence Crawford and Oscar Valdez are under consideration to fight in the UK in the future after the stunning success of Vasyl Lomachenko’s winning appearance over Luke Campbell in London on Saturday.

The allure of Lomachenko travelled to The O2 for the sold-out world lightweight title fight and promoters Top Rank took note after the Ukrainian prevailed on points following 12 thrilling rounds.

Sources have told The Independent that Top Rank are now considering moves to bring some of their other world champions to the UK.

WBO welterweight champion Crawford, who is arguably the main competition to Lomachenko for pound-for-pound supremacy, triumphed in Glasgow back in 2014 to beat Ricky Burns for the world lightweight title in his only professional fight to date outside of the United States.

Top Rank have struggled finding Crawford opponents recently with fellow 147-pound champions Errol Spence Jr, Shawn Porter and Manny Pacquiao all tied to rival promoters PBC, which led to his most recent victory over Amir Khan in April.

Super featherweight dynamo Valdez has made a name for himself with his fan-friendly style, epitomised by his brawl with Scott Quigg last year. The Mexican, who has been linked with facing IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington, relinquished his title at 126 pounds this summer though to move up in weight.

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It has been Top Rank’s intention for some time to bring their fighters to the UK and Ireland since signing Michael Conlan in 2016. And founder Bob Arum raved about the British fans following Saturday’s show.

“The atmosphere in London is better than in Las Vegas,” Arum claimed. “The British fans are so knowledgeable.”

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While fellow promoter Eddie Hearn agreed and admitted he is tempted to bring Lomachenko’s compatriot Oleksandr Usyk, who became undisputed cruiserweight world champion by beating Tony Bellew in Manchester last year, back to the UK as he begins to campaign at heavyweight.

“He (Lomachenko) could fill up any arena against any international fighter, it doesn’t even need to be a Brit,” Hearn explained.

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“Usyk is the same, we’ll go to Chicago, we’ll sell 5-6,000 tickets, but I could put him on here (The O2) and do 18,000 against somebody like (Carlos) Takam.

“They (British fight fans) are educated and knowledgable, they’ll sit there from 5pm and watch the whole thing, all the fights. That’s why Lomachenko wanted to fight here.”

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/ter...051037655.html

Bringing Crawford there would be openly sabotaging him. But Bob has been openly sabotaging him for years. Typical TR treatment of African American fighters. If he wants to build to a Spence PPV he needs to be seen by American fans, and be promoted before it. I saw more Lomachenko promotions before the Campbell fight than I have seen before any fight ever. I can’t remember ever seeing Crawford promoted, never a commercial, never an inside the camp show, nothing. Can anyone remember ever seeing a Crawford commercial?

:D - every thread.

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Originally Posted by Fenster

:D - every thread.

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You saying you have seen a Crawford commercial?

Openly sabotaging Crawford by him fighting in the UK? This would surely also plug into the European Market? The assumption being the the US Market trumps both EU and UK combined?