Less than 24 hours after becoming the first undisputed champion in boxing's junior welterweight history, Terence Crawford has announced he will move up in weight.
Crawford spoke to SportsCenter the day after he defeated Julius Indongo to become the undisputed WBA, WBO, WBC and IBF junior welterweight champion. The Omaha, Nebraska native said it was time for him to move up another weight class.
"I'm planning on moving up to 147 pounds. That's the next step for me, my managers, my coaches, my teams. We're going to conquer the welterweight division," Crawford said.
Crawford had planned to move up in weight for some time, but wanted to unify titles before doing so. Crawford said he doesn't think there will be much of a challenge going to welterweight, save for maybe getting the big fights that he's accustomed to seeing at junior welterweight.
"[Not much challenge in moving up] at all. I just got to get the fights I got at 140 at 147 and that's going to be the biggest challenge," Crawford said.
Moving up to welterweight does mean that Crawford will have to vacate all the titles that he unified against Crawford. There are plenty of big names for Crawford to fight at 147 pounds, such as current world champions Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr. and Jeff Horn as well as Manny Pacquiao, Danny Garcia, Kell Brook, Shawn Porter and more.
Crawford was a former world champion at lightweight before moving up to junior welterweight in 2015.