WBO Junior welterweight champion of the world Terrance Crawford (26-0, 18 KO) will return to action October 24th. His opponent will be former world title challenger Dierry Jean (29-1, 20 KO). The bout will take place in Crawford’s native Omaha, Nebraska. The main event will be aired live on HBO.
Crawford had a huge 2014 winning the fighter of the year award having defeated Ricky Burns, Yuriorkis Gamboa, and Ray Beltran in succession. He then moved up from 135 to 140 made a big splash at junior welterweight winning his world title in his last fight this past April. He broke open an early closely contested fight with Thomas Dulorme by knocking him out in round 6. It was an explosive display of power and speed by Crawford as the burst seemed to come out of nowhere.
Jean failed in his only attempt at a world title in 2014 against world champion Lamont Peterson. Jean was doing very well in the first half of the fight. The second half is where Peterson took over and decisioned Jean to retain his world title. It was a learning experience for Jean who fought Peterson in his hometown. This could turn out to be even more valuable for him now as he heads into the hometown of Crawford.
The matchup itself will see Crawford enter the fight heavily favored to defeat Jean. This odds are fair considering the level of opposition that Crawford has defeated thus far in his career. Jean has reeled of three consecutive wins since losing to Peterson. All of those wins were against lower level opposition. Jean showed in his fight with Peterson that he can bring the fight and be very aggressive. This should make this fight between he and Crawford very action paced. Jean will have to fight this way for him to have any chance at all to defeat Crawford.
