Terence Crawford vs Hank Lundy, Felix Verdejo return set for 2/27 on HBO

Terence Crawford's rumored fight with Hank Lundy is a done deal for February 27 on HBO, with the fight taking place at Chase Square at Madison Square Garden, formerly known as The Theater at Madison Square Garden. In the co-feature, Puerto Rican lightweight prospect Felix Verdejo will return as the drawing card for the live gate.

Crawford (27-0, 19 KO) will be making the second defense of his WBO 140-pound title against Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KO), an entertaining fringe contender who has lost two of his last three fights overall, and four of his last six against serious competition. His five career losses have come against John Molina, Ray Beltran, Viktor Postol, Thomas Dulorme, and Mauricio Herrera. The positive way to look at that is that he's been competitive in each of those defeats, the negative spin being that his best wins have come against Richar Abril in 2010, then guys like Olusegun Ajose, Angelo Santana, and Omri Lowther. Crawford would be by far the biggest win of Lundy's career, and a real shocker. On paper, this is a mismatch of sorts, even considering that Lundy is a pretty good fighter. Perhaps the best way to be excited about this fight is just focusing on the fact that Lundy makes for good fights and isn't an easy out, even if he's not a big threat to Crawford.

Verdejo (19-0, 14 KO) will face undefeated and untested Brazilian William Silva (22-0, 13 KO) in one of those fights where they match a legitimate top prospect against a guy who has a fluffed up record, and then add their wins together to tell you how impressive the records are on the card. Silva, 28, fought his entire career in Brazil from 2006-14, before making his U.S. debut last July with a win over club fighter Adam Mate in California. If Silva is competitive with Verdejo, it would be a surprise, but as always, just because someone hasn't fought higher level competition doesn't mean they can't. Going in, though, this is a clever looking sideways step for Verdejo, who will be responsible for bringing fans to the show, as Crawford, a native of Nebraska, isn't a proven draw in New York, while Verdejo has already shown signs of potentially being Miguel Cotto's gate successor as a Puerto Rican superstar in the city.