By Steve Kim

On Wednesday in Brisbane, Australia, Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) makes the first defense of his WBO welterweight title against Gary Corcoran in a bout that will be televised in the early hours by ESPN in the United States.

An interested observer is Terence Crawford, who after fully unifying the junior welterweight division made the decision to move up to 147.

Because Crawford held the WBO belt as a junior welterweight he was elevated to the mandatory position as a welterweight and now he waits in the wings for the winner.

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes Crawford and has options on Horn, is targeting a showdown between "Bud' and tomorrow's winner for the early part of 2018.

Arum said from Australia on Monday - "I told Terence, 'I think it's a good idea for you to go after the welterweight title and you're the mandatory for Horn-Corcoran and I know I promised you would be back in action in March but it may not be till April.' It depends on how they come out of the fight."

Horn won the WBO belt by upsetting Manny Pacquiao on July 1st in a controversial decision, before a crowd of 51,000 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. They were scheduled to have a rematch in November, before Pacquiao withdrew due to conflicts with his day to day duties as a senator in the Philippines.

 As far as Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), he saw action in August when he beat down Julius Indongo in three rounds to fully consolidate the 140-pound class.

Arum has several dates on hold for the Crawford vs. Horn/Corcoran showdown.

"We're holding March and April dates for that fight," said Arum.

One of the venue that Arum reportedly has on hold, is the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Crawford had previously headlined in Las Vegas in 2016, when he defeated Viktor Postol at the MGM Grand.

Steve Kim is the news editor for krikya360.com