Nnamdi “Hollywood” Moweta

The VOA’s longtime boxing analyst Nnamdi “Hollywood” Moweta has made the short flight from his home base of Los Angeles to Las Vegas more than a few times over the years for world championship fights.

Nnamdi says he’s looking forward to traveling to a new destination next month, though. He’ll be making his first trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, where American Terence Crawford (31-0, 22 KO’s) will take on Namibian Julius “The Blue Machine” Indongo (22-0, 11 KO’s) August 19th for the undisputed world junior welterweight championship.

Nnamdi sometimes talks about “crossroads fights” on my show, and Crawford-Indongo has all the attributes of such a bout. While it will be fought at the 140 lb. junior welterweight limit, Nnamdi says both boxers are likely to move up afterwards to the more competitive welterweight (147 lbs.) class for financial reasons.

The 29-year-old Crawford is from Omaha, Nebraska, not far from Lincoln, and he’ll enjoy the support from many home fans. The 34-year-old Indongo, though, has proven he can win in the lion’s den.

The Namibian fighter traveled to Glasgow earlier this year and scored a unanimous decision victory over Scotland’s Ricky Burns to retain two of his world title belts and win another.

And on December 3, 2016, Indongo traveled to Moscow and scored a spectacular 40-second, first round knockout of Russia’s Eduard Troyanovsky.

For his quick KO of Troyanovsky, and two other impressive wins earlier in the year, Indongo was named the Sonny Side of Sports Fighter of the Year for 2016.

Crawford currently holds two world title belts and is also recognized as the world’s best junior welterweight by The Ring magazine.

Pinnacle Bank Arena

This world championship unification fight will be televised on ESPN in the USA and will be staged at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The indoor arena, which has a seating capacity of about 15,000, opened in 2013 and is the home of the University of Nebraska’s men’s and women’s basketball teams.