erence Crawford, who broke out as a top fighter in 2014 and was considered the Fighter of the Year, returns to action on Saturday night at home in Omaha, Nebraska, where he’ll defend his WBO junior welterweight title against Dierry Jean in an HBO main event.
The 28-year-old Crawford, nicknamed “Bud,” has drawn big, vocal crowds when fighting in world title bouts in his hometown, and his skillful but exciting style has made him a breakout star on the premium cable network. A switch hitter who is effective from both orthodox and southpaw stances, Crawford (26-0, 18 KO) won his first world title at lightweight in 2014, beating Ricky Burns on the road in Scotland, and returned to Omaha for wins against Yuriorkis Gamboa and Ray Beltran to close out 2014. This past April, he went to Arlington, Texas, and won the vacant WBO junior welterweight belt against Thomas Dulorme.
Now he faces Jean, a 33-year-old Haitian fighter based in Montreal, a former title challenger who was widely outpointed by Lamont Peterson in January 2014 and dropped down to lightweight after that bout. But a world title opportunity against Crawford was just too good for Jean (29-1, 20 KO) to pass up. That said, it comes with the odds heavily against him.
Crawford opened at around -1400 with Jean at +700, but that gap has widened even further on various books.
