Notes & Quotes from Crawford, Beltran, and Arum about November 29th

Just to confirm what we already knew, Terence Crawford will defend his lightweight belt against Raymundo Beltran on November 29th at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska, televised on HBO.

Bob Arum told ESPN.com Omaha "has a hunger now for boxing, especially for Terence Crawford. We had over 10,000 for the fight in June and we'll have another big crowd for this fight."

Arum was candid about the challenger's controversial result against Ricky Burns, and how this fight makes up for it ... sort of:

"In the view of every rational viewer, Beltran beat Burns," Arum said. "In a fair world Crawford would have been the challenger to Beltran for the title. At least Beltran is getting the opportunity as the challenger, but it's not the same thing as getting the fight as the champion because of the disparity in money."

Crawford's knows he'll have his hands full with Beltran: "No question about it, my next opponent ain't a bum. He's tricky, he's smart, he's a veteran. He's tough and he can take a punch. I'm not cutting any corners."

Beltran says he's "been through a lot in boxing," referencing specifically the draw with Burns. "I should be defending my title. But only God knows why it happened. I just focus and try to stay positive."

Finally, Crawford mentioned that he discussed a move up in weight with his managers but decided to stay at lightweight for this fight, at least. With an eye toward to the future, though, he said, "Right now my body is getting bigger and I am filling out a little more, but as I have said, my next goal is to move up in weight and win more titles."