Initial conversations have taken place to stage a World Boxing Association junior-middleweight title fight between champion Israil Madrimov and unbeaten, three-division champion Terence Crawford Aug. 3 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, BoxingScene has learned.
The card would mark the first American foray by Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the Kingdom’s General Entertainment Authority who has staged several major cards in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing will handle the promotion, according to an individual who spoke to BoxingScene on the condition of anonymity because the deal is not finalized.
On Wednesday, Turki Alalshikh posted a photo on “X” of Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) standing in a ring with multiple championship belts, to which the fighter responded with an emoji of curious and interested expressions.
The main event would mark Crawford’s attempt to capture a belt in a fourth weight class after previously standing as both undisputed welterweight and 140-pound king.
Uzbekistan’s Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) captured the WBA belt on March 8 in Riyadh, defeating Magomed Kurbanov by fifth-round TKO.
Madrimov, 29, trains in Indio, Calif., a two-hour drive east of the famed Coliseum, which has hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics.
Alalshikh, who is preparing to stage the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk on May 18 and the undisputed light-heavyweight championship fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitrii Bivol in Riyadh on June 1, has shown an interest in producing stacked cards.
The effort is first focused on getting Crawford and Madrimov finalized, but given the historic location, the supporting fights should be talent-littered.
