Terence Crawford’s exit of 154 pounds: WBO president confirms interim evaced belt, Canelo Pursuit

The WBO president, Gustavo Olivieri, ESQ. reveals that Terence Crawford “will not return after 154” and evacuates its interim belt with the organization.

This is a step expected by Crawford (41-0, 31 COs) because he makes a lot of money, and Canelo Alvarez challenges on September 13.

Crawford’s exit

After the payday, Crawford, 38, would take a huge wage reduction to return to 154 to fight current champion Sebastian Fundora in a match that would pose a lot of risk to him because of his lack of size and advanced age.

Returning to 154 to fighting younger fighters with size and ability would be difficult for Crawford, which only fights once a year. By the time he returns to his victory or the defeat of the Alvarez struggle, he will be 39 years old, and you can’t expect him to fight against the 6’5 1/2 ″ Stork Fundora.

It is unclear what Crawford will do after his fight with Canelo. Obviously, he thinks he defeats Canelo and gets a profitable re -broadcast. This would be the ideal situation for the Nebraska native Crawford. However, if he loses against Canelo, it will be interesting to see if he chooses to stay at 168, return to 154 or retire.

He can still make big money to fight during the Riyadh season meetings if they want to use him for fighting. They seem to love Crawford. So he still has to be useful if he is carefully similar. You could not match Crawford against any of the larger fighters like David Banavidez or David Morrell because he would be hacked for their size, power and youth, but he would do well against someone like Edgar Berlanga.

Olivieri recommends that #1 WBO 154-LB contender Xander Zayas (21-0, 13 COs) be made compulsory for champion Sebastian Fundora. If this happens, the winner of Saturday’s battle between WBC/WBO Fundora (21-1-1, 13 COs) and Chordale Booker will have 120 days to defend against the top-promoted Zayas.

Top Rank protected 22-year-old Xander Zayas in the same way they protected Berlanga when he was with them. So it’s hard to know if he’s good or not. His opposition was so awful that there is no way to know if he is a hype work like Berlanga or has real talent.

Re: WBO JR.
Middleweight section (154 pounds.)

1. We have confirmed that Terence Crawford will not return to the 154 pounds, division and will give up its interim WBO title from the official announcement of Canelo/Crawford. Therefore, his compulsory challenge status is very good. /

– Gustavo Olivieri, ESQ. March 21, 2025