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Terence Crawford to fight Amir Khan in welterweight bout at Madison Square Garden

Terence Crawford, left, and Amir Khan at a news conference on Jan. 15 in London.
Terence Crawford, left, and Amir Khan at a news conference on Jan. 15 in London.
(Justin Setterfield / Getty Images)
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Terence Crawford’s hope of taking his talent to maximum exposure achieved reality Tuesday when his promoter selected Madison Square Garden for Crawford’s next bout.

The unbeaten World Boxing Organization welterweight champion will fight England’s Amir Khan April 20 on the first ESPN pay-per-view.

Nebraska’s Crawford (34-0, 25 knockouts) last fought in October, scoring a 12th-round technical knockout of Jose Benavidez Jr.

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The fight’s placement in Nebraska provided a vocal pro-Crawford crowd, but he said he yearned for expanding his reach by going to the Garden or Las Vegas, where he defeated Viktor Postol in his first pay-per-view main event in 2016.

In Khan (33-4, 20 KOs), Crawford meets a former junior-welterweight world champion who moved up eight pounds from welterweight in 2016 to get knocked out by current two-division middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in a pay-per-view at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Crawford ranks as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in several unofficial rankings, including The Times’.

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lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire

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