By Terence Dooley

Britain’s Anthony Crolla will miss out on a huge opportunity after Sky TV confirmed a recent report on BoxingScene.com, that his mooted September 17th opponent Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales will instead take on Jorge Barrios for the vacant WBC light-welterweight title.  Tim Bradley previously held the belt but it is believed that the American will be stripped of his crown due to inactivity in order to allow former WBC 140lb ‘silver’ titlist Morales and one-time WBO super-featherweight boss Barrios to meet on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather versus Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.

Morales has held the WBC belt at featherweight and super-featherweight; he recently pushed Rene Marcos Maidana all the way during a WBA interim light-welterweight title showdown and is ranked #3 in the most recent WBC ratings.  Barrios has never contested a WBC belt, never fought for titles at light-welterweight and is not included in the organisation’s most recent super-lightweight ratings.  However he has held titles at a lower poundage and will likely feature in the next set of WBC rankings in order to legitimately secure his unexpected world title tilt.

Crolla, 21-2 (9), had started training for the bout against Erik, 51-7 (35), but will now look on with disappointment as the Mexican vies for the world title.  Barrios brings a 50-4-1 (35) slate to the table and the Argentine will no doubt relish the opportunity to gatecrash the upper echelons of the division.

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