Terence Crawford's return to the ring is imminent after the WBO ordered the welterweight champion to face mandatory challenger Shawn Porter and there doesn't seem to be many obstacles stopping this fight from happening.
Despite rising tensions between Crawford and his promoter Bob Arum, the Top Rank boss is excited about the prospect of promoting this fight.
Speaking exclusively to Dan Rafael for WBN , Arum has revealed that both sides want it, and it's just a matter of finding the perfect date.
He said: "The way we plan to approach it is the first thing we’re going to do is talk with Porter’s (team) at PBC and see what they want to do.
"Do they want to do it jointly? We’re doing a fight jointly Oct. 9 (for the rescheduled Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder third heavyweight title fight). We’ll have to see where they stand on it and then they’ll talk to Porter, we’ll talk to Crawford and try to put it together."
Usually when a fight between two big names is ordered, money splits can often be an issue, but the likeliehood of a purse bid is low according to Arum.
When it comes to how the fight will be staged and broadcast, it will be a joint effort by Top Rank and PBC, similar to Fury vs. Wilder 3, and put on pay-per-view in November.
Crawford was originally set to fight on October 23rd on ESPN before the WBO made its call for a mandatory title defence.
"Oct 23 is not in play and we wouldn’t want to do it in October because it would be a pay-per-view and we already have an October pay-per-view (Fury-Wilder III), so it would be November," Arum explained.
This will be Crawford's fifth defence of his WBO title after beating Jose Benavidez Jr., Egidijus Kavaliauskas, Amir Khan and Kell Brook.