Terence Crawford's name has been in the boxing circle lately but not because he is facing Haitian challenger Dierry Jean but more of as a possible opponent for Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao in early 2016.
But the last thing that reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight champion Crawford could do is fall into the same predicament that Lucas Matthysse had when he surprisingly lost via knockout (KO) to Viktor Postol.
At that time, Matthysse was a name being floated around as Pacquiao's opponent next year; but instead of using it as a means to motivate him, it served more as a distraction.
The case with Crawford will be, of course, entirely different considering that "Bud" is an up and rising star who has been drawing in big crowds as of late.
He holds a 26–0 record with 18 KOs but is more importantly capturing attention with his skills inside the boxing ring.
The 28-year-old boxer who broke out as a top fighter back in 2014 will be up against an older 33-year-old Jean whose last fight was a loss against Lamont Peterson in January of 2014.
Jean actually went down to lightweight after that loss, but a title-shot against Crawford was simply too hard to pass up. However, that decision comes with circumstances and, apparently, that is why Jean is an underdog headed into the Saturday fight.
There will be, of course, those who will say that the choice in opponent isn't exactly something that would give Crawford some leverage as far as bigger fights are concerned. But given that he doesn't have much of a choice in facing big name fighters, Jean was the fighter he opted to go with.
Looking ahead and assuming that he wins, a potential fight would be to face Postol in 2016. Postol suddenly finds himself in the limelight after that Matthysse victory so a match with the Ukrainian could be something better.
That is unless, of course, he ends up getting a shot at the returning (and last) fight of Pacquiao in 2016.
