When Maurice Hooker first defeated Terry Flanagan to win the WBO junior welterweight title, there had been some speculation as to what his first fight will be.
It had been reported elsewhere that Hooker would be one of the entrants on the World Boxing Super Series junior welterweight tournament, but when Hooker talked to Fightful back in June, he said he had not signed on to fight in the tournament. Fightful further reached out to Roc Nation Sports regarding Hooker's next fight and promoter Dino Duva told Fightful that the plan is to have Hooker fight WBO International champion Alex Saucedo, who is the No. 1 ranked boxer at 140 lbs. in the WBO rankings, as Hooker’s first world title defense.
"We absolutely intend on Maurice fighting Saucedo next as his mandatory as long as Saucedo is ready to go within the WBO mandated time frame," Duva said.
This would essentially shut down the possibility of Hooker being in the WBSS, but would put Hooker in a fight against Saucedo, who is coming off a win over Lenny Zappavigna in a potential "Fight of the Year" candidate. The idea of Hooker defending his title outside of the WBSS is unsurprising as he did tell Fightful that there were other options presented to him that didn't involve him fighting in the WBSS.
Hooker won one of the titles that was vacated by Terence Crawford when Hooker scored a split decision win over Flanagan in Manchester, England. Hooker also talked to Fightful about winning the WBO title and what his thoughts were when the scores were read and that interview can be read at this link.
