Horn title defence postponed after Crawford hand injury

SYDNEY: WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn’s title defence in Las Vegas next month has been postponed after opponent Terence Crawford injured his hand while sparring, organisers said Thursday.

The Australian was due to fight the undefeated American on April 14, but it has now been put back to a yet-to-be-decided date.“Jeff Horn’s scheduled world title defence against highly-rated American Terence Crawford has been postponed,” his team said in a statement.

“Crawford suffered an injury to his right hand in a sparring session and a rescheduled date is yet to be determined.”Horn, who upset Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiao to take the World Boxing Organisation title last July, said he was disappointed and cast doubt of the seriousness of the injury.

“Hopefully it’s an injury he’s had to postpone it for and not a tactic to throw us off our game,” he said. “The Americans are saying he’s such a great fighter, why doesn’t he fight with one hand then.”

Horn defended his title in December with an 11th-round stoppage of England’s Gary Corcoran.Crawford is unbeaten in 32 bouts and will move up from the junior welterweight division to welterweight to challenge the Australian.