Jeff Horn may have never had the chance to "achieve greatness" against Terence Crawford had he not agreed to an April fight in Las Vegas, his trainer Glenn Rushton says.
An official announcement is imminent after Horn's camp agreed terms for an April 21 match-up against Crawford, the unbeaten American who is a former world champion in two weight classes and regarded as one of the best active fighters on the planet.
Horn had been tossing up a potential $2 million meeting with Anthony Mundine but, after negotiations with Bob Arum's Top Rank, the former schoolteacher has opted to take the hard road instead of the easy money.
Most US boxing fans expect Crawford, 30, to wipe the floor with Horn and take his world championship after moving up to the 66.68kg limit, having cleaned out the light welterweight division.
But, as ever, Rushton and his charge have other ideas.
"We're comfortable with what we've negotiated," Rushton told AAP.
"We had a commitment with the Pacquiao fight, an option agreement that's been exercised by Top Rank and we want to do the right thing.
"There's things that can be done but you put this one off and Crawford goes in a different direction and then we miss the opportunity to achieve greatness. We never make it.
"Then we'll never know whether we would have beaten him.
"We want the big fights. If we're going to fight him, we may as well fight him while Jeff's in his prime.
"It would have been good to get another couple of fights under Jeff's belt, but it's just not to be."
Previous reports indicated Horn couldn't have faced Mundine before Crawford in any case because, in order to get his last welterweight title defence against Brit Gary Corcoran sanctioned by the WBO, he had to agree to make his next fight a mandatory defence.
Had he not done so, he would have had to vacate his belt.
Rushton said Horn was relishing the challenge of fighting in America - where the crowds, media and judges will all be against him - and proving a point to his doubters.
"The only way you can get recognition is to go over there and fight the guy that most people regard as the best fighter in the world and stop him," he said.
"If we do that ... I'm hoping they'll sit up and actually finally acknowledge that Jeff is a great boxer, incredibly tough, big and strong and that he'll get the acknowledgement he deserves."
