Welterweight contender Amir Khan struggled mightily to make a decision on which fight he should take between two major offers. Should he take up the challenge against welterweight world titlist and pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford, or should he take on former welterweight titlist and bitter British rival Kell Brook in a fight that has been talked about for years?
In the end, former unified junior welterweight titlist Khan opted to face Crawford, whom he met face to face at a London hotel to formally announce their fight on Tuesday.
Crawford, the former lightweight champion and undisputed junior welterweight world champion, will make his second welterweight title defense against Khan on April 20 in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing card that ESPN will carry on pay-per-view (9 p.m. ET), the first PPV event of the promotional company's seven-year deal with the network.
The venue has not been determined yet, but Top Rank promoter Bob Arum recently told ESPN that the fight would take place either at Madison Square Garden in New York or at one of the MGM Resorts International arenas in Las Vegas: the MGM Grand Garden Arena, T-Mobile Arena or Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Khan had been far down the road with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn on a deal to face Brook, who is also with Hearn. When Khan signed with Hearn last January, one of the main reasons was to help facilitate the long-awaited match with Brook.
But Top Rank came to Khan with a strong offer -- at least $5 million and the chance to win another world title on a major American pay-per-view -- because it needed a name opponent for Crawford to face.
Khan said he struggled with the decision, but ultimately the opportunity to fight one of boxing's elite fighters won out.
"The decision as to fighting Kell Brook or Crawford has been one of the most difficult decisions of my career to date," Khan said. "Clearly, the U.K. fans want to see Khan versus Brook, but I could not turn down the opportunity to fight for the WBO title. That is not to say that the Brook fight won't happen, as I want that fight to happen as soon as possible.
"Fighting a world champion won't be easy, but this is exactly the challenge I need at this stage of my career. I am fully motivated and ready for the best training camp of my life. Crawford is beatable, and I want that WBO title. It's going to be one hell of a fight."
Hearn made no secret that his preference was for Khan to fight Brook, but he ultimately could not stop him from accepting the Crawford fight because he does not control Khan's promotional rights outside of the United Kingdom. Still, he will serve as Khan's promoter for the bout and said he understood the reason for his decision.
"There has been a lot of speculation regarding Amir's next fight, but the lure to trying to win another world title was too much to turn down, and now he faces arguably the No. 1 welterweight in the world in Terence Crawford," Hearn said. "It's a fight he believes he can win, and on his night, Amir has all the speed and skills to beat the very best. I believe it will be a fascinating and dramatic matchup."
Crawford has wanted to face top opponents, but the other welterweight titleholders -- Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter, not to mention former titlist Danny Garcia -- are not available to him. Not only do all four of them have other fights lined up, they each fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner and are tied to the PBC broadcast partners, Showtime and Fox, while Crawford is tied to ESPN. That makes any deal extremely complicated.
Khan did not come with such issues and though he may be a notch below those fighters, he has a bigger name than any of them.
"It's always been my goal to fight the best fighters out there, and I look at Amir Khan as one of the top fighters in my division," Crawford said. "I know some people are writing him off, but I am by no means overlooking him. He's a former unified world champion, and come April 20, I'll be looking to go out there to seek and destroy. I'm excited about this fight because I believe it can push my career to another level."
Arum said he was happy to provide Crawford with a top opponent for the first pay-per-view fight of the Top Rank-ESPN partnership.
"The Crawford-Khan showdown is a very interesting matchup of two elite fighters," Arum said. "Khan, when fighting at welterweight, is as good as there is, but he is fighting the division's best fighter and a pound-for-pound great. It will be an entertaining and competitive fight. We are also excited to join forces with ESPN on our first pay-per-view venture under the Top Rank on ESPN agreement."
ESPN has invested heavily in its deal with Top Rank under which there are live network cards, streaming cards on ESPN+ and an array of shoulder programming. But pay-per-view events were always considered another important element of the partnership.
"Crawford is a world champion, a global phenomenon and perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, and Khan is a fighter that everyone wants to see every time he steps in the ring," said Burke Magnus, ESPN's executive vice president of programming. "This is what boxing needs, more big-name showdowns, and this fight is a perfect example of the vision that we had when we teamed up with Top Rank."
Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs), 31, of Omaha, Nebraska, moved up to welterweight and knocked out Jeff Horn in the ninth round of a one-sided fight to win a world title on June 9. He made his first defense with a one-sided 12th-round knockout of Jose Benavidez on Oct. 13, but Khan is a more significant opponent than either of them.
Since moving up to welterweight in 2014, the 32-year-old Khan (33-4, 20 KOs) owns wins against former titleholders Devon Alexander and Luis Collazo and former junior welterweight titlist Chris Algieri. But in 2016, Khan made the audacious move up two divisions to challenge middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and paid the price. After outboxing Alvarez for several rounds, he suffered a brutal sixth-round knockout.
Khan took off 23 months in the wake of the defeat, but he has won two fights in a row since his return, a first-round knockout of Phil Lo Greco in April and a lopsided 12-round decision against Samuel Vargas in September, after which most thought he would next face Brook this spring -- until Crawford entered the picture.
Undercard
Before pound-for-pound king Terence “Bud” Crawford enters the ring to defend his WBO welterweight world title against Amir “King” Khan, a pair of 21-year-old wunderkinds — Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson — will look to steal the show in their respective co-feature bouts on ESPN PPV Saturday, April 20 at Madison Square Garden.
Stevenson, the 2016 U.S. Olympic silver medalist, will tangle with former 130-pound world title challenger Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz in a 10-round featherweight bout. Lopez, the consensus 2018 Prospect of the Year and top lightweight contender, will face two-time European lightweight champion and former world title challenger Edis Tatli in a 10-rounder. Tatli is ranked No. 3 by the IBF and No. 10 by the WBC.
And, in a special attraction that will open the broadcast, Puerto Rican star Felix “El Diamante” Verdejo will fight former two-time interim super featherweight world champion Bryan Vasquez in a 10-round lightweight bout that will thrust the winner into the world title picture.
Tickets priced at $606, $406, $306, $206, $106, $81, and $56 (including facility fees) are on sale now and can be purchased at the Madison Square Garden Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster charge by phone (866-858-0008) and online atwww.ticketmaster.com and www.msg.com.
Details on how fans will be able to access the pay-per-view broadcast, which will begin at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, will be announced at a later date.
The entire undercard will stream live beginning at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+, the new multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer & International segment in conjunction with ESPN.
“This terrific undercard accompanying the Crawford-Khan main event will be extremely entertaining and exciting,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum. “Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez are two of the brightest young lights in boxing and are facing seasoned opponents in Diaz and Tatli. Felix Verdejo is on the comeback trail, and Bryan Vasquez is a tough veteran who won’t give in.”
Lopez (12-0, 10 KOs) catapulted from prospect to contender in 2018 and early 2019 with a slew of headline-grabbing wins, including sensational knockout victories over Mason Menard and Diego Magdaleno in his last two fights. A 2016 Olympian for his parents’ native Honduras, the Brooklyn-born puncher last fought at Madison Square Garden’s big arena on May 12 of last year, punctuating his first-round knockout of Vitor Jones Freitas with a Fortnite dance that went viral. Tatli (31-2, 10 KOs) has never been stopped as a pro and has wins over current European lightweight champion Francesco Patera, top contender Yvan Mendy and former 130-pound world champion Mzonke Fana. A celebrity in his native Finland, Tatli recently took home the first prize on “Tanssii tähtien kanss,” the Finnish version of the popular BBC program, “Strictly Come Dancing.”
“Every time I fight in my hometown, I take over the show, and that’s what I plan on doing again,” Lopez said. “This is the year I become a world champion, and whoever stands in my way is going to get knocked out. If you think you’ve seen the best version of Teofimo Lopez, think again. The Takeover is coming to Madison Square Garden and ESPN pay-per-view.
“One thing I know for sure: Tatli will be dancing with the real star of The Takeover on April 20. This ain't reality TV. This is a real fight.”
"This is a great matchup, and I can't wait to get the job done," Tatli said. "Lopez is a skilled fighter, and he is in for a real treat on April 20. My goal has been clear for a long time — to win a world title — and Lopez is not going to stop me reaching it."
Stevenson (10-0, 6 KOs) followed up a 5-0 campaign in 2018 with a spectacular fourth-round TKO over Jessie Cris Rosales on Jan. 18 in Verona, N.Y. A native of Newark, N.J. — a short train ride from Madison Square Garden — Stevenson hopes to move closer to a world title opportunity in front of his home fans. Diaz (24-1, 16 KOs), from Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, moved down to featherweight following his July 2018 decision loss to Masayuki Ito for the vacant WBO junior lightweight world title. He knocked out David Berna in the first round on Nov. 24 to set up the Stevenson showdown.
“Newark is going to be in the building on April 20 as I show Christopher Diaz what I’m all about,” Stevenson said. “After I get done with him, Diaz will wish he’d stayed at 130 pounds. Soon enough, the featherweight division is going to run through me.”
"I feel super motivated and focused as always for another big fight in another big event,” Diaz said. “I like these kinds of challenges. I'm fighting against a silver medalist of the 2016 Rio Olympics who is also a great prospect with a lot of potential. He needs to demonstrate that he has what nobody can teach him. He needs to show that he has heart and gallantry. We'll see on April 20 when he faces his first real tough test. I will come prepared as I always do. On that night, he will understand that you can't teach cojones and that I was born with very big ones."
Verdejo (24-1, 16 KOs), a former amateur superstar for his native Puerto Rico, hopes to graduate to contender status with a victory over Vasquez. He suffered his first loss last March via 10th-round stoppage to Antonio Lozada Jr. in a fight he was leading. Verdejo was victorious in his comeback bout on Nov. 10 in Puerto Rico, knocking out Yardley Armenta Cruz in the second round. Vasquez (37-3, 20 KOs) has won two in a row since a tight majority decision loss to Ray Beltran in August 2017.
"I'm going into this new challenge ready to demonstrate my skills against a world-class fighter,” Verdejo said. “I hope that this fight will open the doors to big fights. I want to bring a world championship to Puerto Rico, and this is the year."
“In order for me to lose to Verdejo, he’s going to have to kill me,” Vasquez said. “In order for him to kill me, he’s going to have to be willing to die with me. And he’s already shown that he’s not willing to die in there.”
ESPN Ppv?? Yeah Bob Arum could eat an entire dikk. Streamin that.
