BoxRec

Terry Flanagan has moved up in weight after a frustrating reign as a lightweight world champion.

The WBO king, who had five defences of the crown he won back in 2015, had the move confirmed by the sanctioning body on social media on Thursday.

Flanagan (33-0, 13 KOs) recently said that a deal was “all but done” to fight Jorge Linares, the WBC Diamond champion at 135 pounds, but it has now been confirmed that the 28-year-old will campaign a division north at super-lightweight.

According to the WBO, ‘Turbo’ enters the rankings at 140lbs in the number one position for a title which is currently still officially held by Terence Crawford, despite it being common knowledge that the Nebraskan plans to move to welterweight.

That means that Flanagan could well fight for the title, in a vacant capacity, in his next fight.

Maurice Hooker, the NABO champion, is also rated highly, while the Inter-Continental and newly crowned British champion Jack Catterall and Jose Zepeda who Flanagan won the lightweight belt against over two years ago are also in the top five of the latest rankings.

Boxing Scene tried to contact Flanagan, who was unavailable at the time of writing.

Further details regarding his ring return will be revealed in due course.

There was much bigger and better fights at 135.. at 140, he'll just dominate..

It's no secret that Arum and Warfen control WBO.

Crawford moves up and is now mandatory to Horn.. Flanagan is #1 for WBO at 140.. might aswell giv him the belt now.. 130 title now vacant. Won't be surprised if Loma moved up and took that title.

Crawford has also officially vacated, moved up a division and also #1 at his new weight.

great cant wait for amazing fights against the likes of mo hooker

Hooker is awful. Got a gift against Darleys Perez on the Ward-Kovalev I undercard. Flanagan should dominate him.

This isn't anything new. I'm surprised so many fans think a champion moving up getting preferential treatment is rare or new. It's common place.

Flanagan vs. Hooker for the title.
Flanagan vs. Catterall for his first defence.

Terry should campaign in both divisions if he is still able to make the LW-limit...

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:This isn't anything new. I'm surprised so many fans think a champion moving up getting preferential treatment is rare or new. It's common place.

Im not surprised.. it does happen.. i guess I shuda seen this 1 coming..

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:This isn't anything new. I'm surprised so many fans think a champion moving up getting preferential treatment is rare or new. It's common place.

to be fair, if a champion moves up it does create a super fight (champion vs. champion) situation which should get preferential treatment...

Ruthless-RKO wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:This isn't anything new. I'm surprised so many fans think a champion moving up getting preferential treatment is rare or new. It's common place.

Im not surprised.. it does happen.. i guess I shuda seen this 1 coming..

It almost always happens, always has. It should.

wesshaw1985 wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:This isn't anything new. I'm surprised so many fans think a champion moving up getting preferential treatment is rare or new. It's common place.

to be fair, if a champion moves up it does create a super fight (champion vs. champion) situation which should get preferential treatment...

Absolutely

A pity that this is the best that can be done for Flanagan, moving up for a vacant title after Crawford decided to move up...

Hope he can fulfil his potential.

Ducker

And that’s an FW speciality, Calzaghe and Maccarinelli Boxing for vacant titles after established names retired and vacated.

So he finally has an interesting fight in his sights and instead decides to move up ! I cant remember a world champ from these shores that I had less interest in

littlepug wrote:So he finally has an interesting fight in his sights and instead decides to move up ! I cant remember a world champ from these shores that I had less interest in

No one even knows him,, even in Manchester.. where I'm from..

At MEN, he can probably only fill 2k to 3k seats which is poor..

Other boxers around the area, people know. The likes of Crolla, Quigg.. locals talk about them

Ruthless-RKO wrote:

littlepug wrote:So he finally has an interesting fight in his sights and instead decides to move up ! I cant remember a world champ from these shores that I had less interest in

No one even knows him,, even in Manchester.. where I'm from..

At MEN, he can probably only fill 2k to 3k seats which is poor..

Other boxers around the area, people know. The likes of Crolla, Quigg.. locals talk about them

sort of feel sorry for him as its not really his fault, I think better matches over the last couple of years would have raised his profile somewhat

littlepug wrote:

Ruthless-RKO wrote:

littlepug wrote:So he finally has an interesting fight in his sights and instead decides to move up ! I cant remember a world champ from these shores that I had less interest in

No one even knows him,, even in Manchester.. where I'm from..

At MEN, he can probably only fill 2k to 3k seats which is poor..

Other boxers around the area, people know. The likes of Crolla, Quigg.. locals talk about them

sort of feel sorry for him as its not really his fault, I think better matches over the last couple of years would have raised his profile somewhat

Yeh, definately.. Warren hardly has his guys in unifications. Its just, here's a vacated WBO title, now lets keep it hidden.. Lightweight is much better than the 140 division right now.

Terry seems nice from his interviews, it's a shame. I don't really rate him and that's only because I don't think i've seen the best of him yet.

That’s buried any prospect of the Crolla fight. Shame.

I like fw but how many british world champions have signed with him and seen their careers stagnate and virtually die ffs

Absolutely idiotic that he's moved up at a time when Linares and Garcia wanted to fight him.

He struggles to sell tickets. He needed a super fight. Hooker isn't a super fight.

Just means he can get billed as a two time world champion.

Get him in with Taylor

Did anyone really think Warr3n was going to let him fight Linares or Garcia? Always had a feeling he was going to pull a shithouse move like this.

Stuarty30 wrote:Get him in with Taylor

She’d toy with him

CaptainSpacerod wrote:

Stuarty30 wrote:Get him in with Taylor

She’d toy with him

lol goes 2 show the bullsht. terry just assured us a deal pretty much done wth lnares when they were plannng this bold move