WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 38-0 (29) is looking forward to returning to performing in front of his hometown fans for the first time in more than four years when he takes on David Avanesyan 29-3-1 (17) at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday night.
The 35-year-old southpaw will be making the sixth defence of the WBO strap he won against Jeff Horn in 2018.
“I’ve been carrying Omaha with me everywhere I go my entire life and when I fought here in the golden glove nationals in the finals that’s when Omaha gravitated towards me,” Crawford said. “For me to continue bringing the big fights back to Omaha means the world to me. There’s never been anything like this, I’m really excited.
“I’m very focused and have been since day one, strictly on Avanesyan. We know what he brings to the table, but we’re going to elevate it to a higher level. This Saturday we’ll be victorious and going to have fun doing it.
“I really can’t look at too much of who [Avanesyan] fought and how they fought each other. When [Avanesyan] and I match up we’ll be making our adjustments on the fly and we’re going to do what we do best, which is shine.”
British-based Russian Avanesyan, 34, scored a breakout win over Josh Kelly by sixth-round knockout in February last year. He has since scored two early round knockouts against Liam Taylor and Oskari Metz.
“This is a big fight, a huge fight,” Avanesyan said. “I had a great camp, and I’m going to be giving everything to win this fight. Everyone is talking about Terence, I’m not only here to win this fight decisively but to shock the world.
“Come Sunday morning, the news will be spreading that I raised the belt and shocked the world. I’ll be getting to go back and see my family who I haven’t seen for so long, and return home a champion.”