Terence Crawford is staying in Madison Square Garden for his next WBO welterweight title defense.
Top Rank announced that Crawford will defend his world title against mandatory challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas on December 14. The fight will headline a Top Rank on ESPN card from Madison Square Garden, following Top Rank's tradition of holding a boxing card at the venue immediately after the Heisman Trophy presentation.
This will be Crawford's third defense of the belt ever since he won it back in the summer of 2018 with a stoppage win over Jeff Horn in Las Vegas. Afterwards, Crawford took care of Jose Benavidez Jr. and Amir Khan in his first two title defenses, the latter of which took place at Madison Square Garden on pay-per-view back in April.
Kavaliauskas has held the No. 1 position in the WBO rankings at welterweight for many months, but his last fight nearly saw his title aspirations go up in flames. Back in March, the undefeated Kavaliauskas fought Ray Robinson to a majority draw in Philadelphia.
Also announced for the card is an IBF lightweight title fight between titleholder Richard Commey and mandatory challenger Teofimo Lopez. Commey won the then-vacant belt in February when he defeated Isa Chaniev in Texas while Lopez, an undefeated rising star, won an opportunity to fight for his first world title with a unanimous decision win over Masayoshi Nakatani in July.
The winner won't just be coming home with the IBF title but a potential superfight with unified WBA, WBO and WBC lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020. A fight between Lomachenko and the Commey vs. Lopez winner would crown an undisputed champion at 135 pounds.
The third fight announced is the highly-anticipated grudge match between Michael Conlan and Vladimir Nikitin. The two fought in the 2016 Olympics in a bout that immediately became infamous for its highly controversial and widely panned scoring that gave the victory to Nikitin. Conlan and Nikitin were supposed to fight in August in Northern Ireland, but Nikitin withdrew from the bout after suffering a torn biceps.
