Former undisputed junior welterweight world champion Terence Crawford's move to welterweight to challenge titleholder Jeff Horn will be rescheduled for June 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, multiple sources with knowledge of the plans said Friday.
Crawford, the 2017 ESPN fighter of the year, was initially scheduled to fight Horn on April 14 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. However, he suffered a right hand injury during a sparring session earlier this month, forcing the mandatory bout to be postponed.
Crawford did not suffer a break or any torn ligaments. After seeing a hand specialist in Los Angeles, he was told by his doctor to rest the hand for two weeks. Since the injury was not serious, Crawford and his trainer/manager Brian McIntyre elected to remain in training camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to make sure he worked on whatever he could without using his right hand.
When the bout was scheduled for April 14, Jimmy Pitaro, the new president of ESPN and the co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, announced earlier this month at an ESPN employee town hall in Bristol, Connecticut, that the network's agreement with Top Rank had been amended to add an additional 12 cards over the next year that will stream exclusively on the ESPN+ subscription app that is due to launch this spring.
Pitaro specifically mentioned that Crawford-Horn would be on one of those cards, although that was before the bout was postponed. While the fight still could stream on ESPN+, there is also a chance it will air on ESPN instead, one source said.
Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), 30, of Omaha, Nebraska, vacated the undisputed junior welterweight title after unifying all four major 140-pound belts on Aug. 19 in order to move up to the welterweight division to challenge Horn for his 147-pound world title.
Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), 30, of Australia, controversially outpointed Manny Pacquiao to win the title last July. He defended it by 11th-round knockout of Gary Corcoran on Dec. 13 to set the stage for the Crawford fight.