Terence Crawford (25-0) comes off a 2014 that saw him emerge as one of the top fighters in the world today, and on Saturday he begins his 2015 campaign by facing Thomas Dulorme on the campus of the University of Texas. Right now, the books have Crawford a big (-1200) favorite, with Dulorme returning at (+775). There is no over/under line available. The bout is for the vacant WBO World Super Lightweight title. Crawford is moving up in weight from Lightweight, where he had won the WBO World title in his first fight of 2014, back in March, when he travelled to England and took the belt from Ricky Burns. Then in June, he defended the belt against undefeated Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa, who he sent to the canvas multiple times before earning the stoppage in the ninth. Finally, in November, he outpointed tough Raymundo Beltran to win his second title defense. After the Beltran fight, Crawford started making plans for the move up in weight. Dulorme is from Puerto Rico and he is riding a solid six fight winning streak buoys his (22-1) overall record. Dulorme has been at Super Lightweight for several fights now, and his only loss comes at Welterweight when he lost to tough Luis Carlos Abregu in October of 2012. His recent wins include “W” over Henry Lundy and Karim Mayfield and he has held regional belts at Super Lightweight before. Nevertheless, Crawford is close to achieving all-world type of status and he is expected to be a cut above Dulorme for this one. The Crawford-Dulorme bout on HBO is part of a double-header that will also feature the Lucas Martin Matthysse versus Ruslan Provodnikov that takes place in New York that same evening. That bout, which is also in the Super Lightweight category, has a much tighter and more competitive line as Matthysse is a slim (-145) favorite over Provodnikov, who is returning at (+125). What HBO could be working towards is a showdown between the winner of this bout and Terence Crawford, the expected winner of the other featured fight. Also on the card is highly regarded Lightweight Diego Magdaleno (27-1), as he takes on veteran Luis Solis (15-6-4). The rest of the ve event down in Texas features ten fights in all and counts on a series of undefeated prospects in bouts of four, six and eight rounds.
