Report: Crawford, Madrimov agree to Aug. 3 junior middleweight title fight

Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov have reached an agreement on a deal to fight for Madrimov's WBA junior middleweight title Aug. 3 in Los Angeles, sources told ESPN's Mike Coppinger.

The bout will be announced at a press conference in New York on Wednesday.

Crawford, the reigning WBO, WBA, and WBC welterweight champion, will be moving up one weight class for this fight. He'll attempt to win a title at a fourth different weight class, having previously held belts at lightweight - where he was the undisputed champion - and junior welterweight.

"Bud" is ranked as the world's No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer by both ESPN and The Ring. The Nebraska native is a lifetime 40-0 with 31 wins via knockout. He successfully defended his WBO welterweight belt six times since earning it in 2018. Crawford's TKO win over Errol Spence Jr. last July briefly made him the undisputed welterweight champion before the IBF stripped him of their title in November.

Madrimov won the WBA's then-vacant 154-pound belt with a fifth-round TKO of Magomed Kurbanov on March 8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 29-year-old Uzbek heads into his first title defense with a professional record of 10-0-1.

Jermell Charlo, the WBA's "super" junior middleweight champion in recess, had the right to immediately challenge Madrimov. However, his management decided to allow Madrimov to fight Crawford first.

"(Charlo) hereby requests to be reinstated as the WBA super champion at 154 pounds," TGB Promotions wrote in a letter to the WBA obtained by Coppinger. "We also want you to know that Jermell has no problem with Israil Madrimov defending his regular title against Terence Crawford this summer."

Crawford-Madrimov is being presented by Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Season under His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, in partnership with Crawford, Coppinger reports. It will mark the first Saudi Arabian-backed fight to be contested outside of that nation.