By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing

WBO welterweight.champion Jeff Horn is excited that the venue for his mandatory title bout against Terrence Crawford will be the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York on April 14 according to Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan. “There’s so much rich history that goes with it,” Lonergan said. “You’re on a global stage and also what this presents to Jeff is a massive opportunity going forward. If Jeff (can) establish himself in the American market, that’s what every boxer wants.

“While the Australian market is a good market, it’s not quite America, where you’ve got the biggest economy in the world, 300 million people and massive boxing support. I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this in a very, very long time.

“If he was ever going to be intimidated it would have been (then) and we all saw how he went with that – totally relaxed, happy with what was going on. Madison Square Garden only holds 22,000. I don’t think the crowd size is going to worry him.

“If the crowd boos him – and I don’t think they will – he’ll just rise to the occasion and that’ll give him some added motivation.”

Lonergan expects to sign official contracts for the fight within two weeks.