Spence vs. Crawford's Third Wheel Could Face Different 'Superstar'

The long-awaited undisputed championship bout between . and Terence Crawford could finally come to fruition sooner rather than later.

Keith Thurman has long been yearning to become a world champion again. He certainly knows how to do so and it is through a win over either . or Terence Crawford.

As it stands, Spence already holds the WBC, IBF and WBA belts, having recently stopped Yordenis Ugas.

The only title missing is the WBO title, which is currently in the hands of Crawford.

With that in mind, the pair is likely to face each other for a unification bout, making Thurman the third wheel once again.

Nevertheless, “One Time” may not be left without a fight as Eddie Hearn recently included him in the list of possible next opponents of Matchroom Boxing star Conor Benn, who had just secured a second-round stoppage of Chris van Heerden.

“He’s going to go on and become a world champion, now we’ve got to step up the opposition,” Hearn told DAZN. “He’s had a great development. [Samuel] Vargas, [Adrian] Granados, [Chris] Algieri, Van Heerden. Now it’s time for the more serious players of the division.”

“It won’t be Amir Khan, he won’t be around until the end of the year,” the promoter continued. “It’s going to be Mikey Garcia, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Adrian Broner, David Avanesyan. We want a marquee fight. We want to take him back to London and fight at that beautiful O2.”

For Hearn, Benn is now a “superstar” and it’s only right that he gets the biggest names in the division sooner rather than later.

“It's a brilliant journey, he’s a superstar and he’s really, really good,” he added. “We would take a lot of these guys. It’s time for a serious test this summer.”

With a wide variety of options laid out by Hearn for Benn, Thurman’s next opponent is still up in the air at this point.

Keith Thurman hopes a win over Luiz Collazo will earn him a fight with one of boxing's top stars. Photo: Getty

As Spence and Crawford, the two welterweight kings have already verbally agreed to finally make the fight happen.

"Everybody knows who I want next; I want Terence Crawford next," Spence said after beating Ugas. "That's the fight that I want; that's the fight everybody else wants. Terence, I'm coming for that motherf---ing belt."

“Congratulations, great fight, now the real fight happens,” Crawford wrote on Twitter, congratulating Spence. “No more talk, no more ‘side of the street, let’s go!”

“Keep my belts warm I’ll be coming to grab 'em later this year."