Crawford Won’t Be Reign At 154 Without Tszyu Fight, Promoter Says

Tim Tszyu’s promoter, George Rose, says that Terence Crawford will “never” become the king of the 154 lb division if he doesn’t fight Tszyu, the former WBO Junior middleweight champion.

Tszyu Focuses on IBF Title First

Rose says that while they are interested in fighting WBA champion Crawford in the future, their priority is to take the IBF title from champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KOs) for now. Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) needs that streak to turn into a big fight against Crawford if he still holds the WBA belt after his next fight.

Crawford is in a rush to try and get a payday for Canelo Alvarez, and he may not stay in the 154-lb division long enough to collect all the gold and fight Tszyu.

He seems to have almost fixed the Canelo fight, and he doesn’t seem to have the desire to stay and fight all the talented at 154 to become the true king.

“We will fight for the IBF world title. “Terence Crawford doesn’t own that, that belongs to Bakhram Murtazaliev,” promoter George Rose said of Tim Tszyu. “So we will be fighting Bakhram, and we will be winning that world title.

“Crawford has got the belts now. He’s a guy we’d love to talk to in the future, but for now, we’re focused on Bakhram.

“He will never be the king of this division if he doesn’t fight Tim Tszyu. Tim Tszyu is the king of this division,” said Rose.

Crawford will need to run the gauntlet at 154 if he wants to be the king of the true team because it is not enough if he holds all the belts but avoids Tszyu as he did Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis at 147.

Terence, 36, has to run the race to prove that he is the best this time because he escaped the 147-lb division without a fight with Boot after his victory over Errol Spence Jr. who was destroyed by a car last year in July.

Although technically, Crawford was the undisputed welterweight champion after his win over the stunned, tough Spence, he still had unfinished business against Boots to the King.

Murderers at 154

– Tim Tszyu
– Sebastian Fundora
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Israil Madrimov: Reunite in a neutral place outside the US
– Charles Conwell
– Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis: If he goes up to 154
– Xander Zayas