Arum thinks Crawford would have a chance against Mayweather

By Boxing News - 10/26/2015 - Comments

Floyd MayweatherBy Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says his fighter WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) would have a chance of beating undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) if the two of them were to ever face each other. Mayweather recently retired from boxing last September after beating Arum’s best fighter in his stable in Manny Pacquiao in May of this year in the “Fight of the Century in Las Vegas.

Mayweather never considered fighting the 28-year-old Crawford because he’s too much of an unknown with the casual boxing fans, and he’s mainly only popular in Nebraska and with a small segment of the hardcore fans, who prefer to see pure boxing.

Mayweather wouldn’t bother ever fighting a guy like Crawford because there would likely be even less money in a fight against him than there was for Mayweather’s recent fight against Andre Berto. The casual boxing fans in the United States know Berto a lot better than they do Crawford, who is a regular newcomer to televised fights despite being already 28-years-old.

If Crawford ever does become a popular fighter in the future, we’re probably talking about another 5 to 7 years for that to come about. By then, Crawford will be in his mid-30s, and who’s to say whether he’ll still be able to dominate the 140lb division at that age.

You can’t say that Crawford is dominating the light welterweight division right now because he’s only had two fights against weak opposition in lightweight Dierry Jean and Thomas Dulormoe. The fight against Dulorme is Crawford’s only fight against a real light welterweight.

Jean was just someone picked out from the lightweight division for Crawford to fight in a showcase fight last Saturday rather than Arum putting someone with the potential to beat Crawford in the ring with him like Viktor Postol. Arum promotes both of those guys, but I think he’s going to keep them in separate lanes so that he can have two world champions at 140 rather than just one.

When asked by Fightnews.com how Crawford would do against Mayweather if the two of them were to face each other, Arum said “really tough to say. Mayweather was less offensive but extraordinarily talented defensively. However, if there was any man capable of doing well against him, it just might be this man right here.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAfGo0_v5no

I don’t think Crawford would have a chance of beating Mayweather due to his lack of hand speed and his poor defensive skills. Crawford can be hit, as we saw last Saturday in his fight against Dierry Jean and in his fights against Yuriorkis Gamboa and Dulorme. All of those fighters were able to put hands on Crawford. Mayweather would have no problems beating Crawford, and I think it would be an even easier fight for Mayweather than his recent win over Pacquiao.

I’m sure that Arum would love for Mayweather to agree to fight Crawford because it might help him out in terms of making him a slightly more popular fighter. But Arum obviously realizes that Mayweather isn’t going to fight someone who brings nothing to the table in terms of PPV buys like Crawford, because there’s simply no money in it for Mayweather to fight him. There’s no money for Pacquiao either, but I guess that won’t stop Arum from still making the Pacquiao-Crawford fight.

Arum is going to have a big void to fill when Pacquiao retires in 2016, and it’s unclear who can step into the void to take over as a PPV star for him. By giving Crawford the fight with Pacquiao at a likely loss of a ton of PPV buys, Arum would be taking a risk that the fight would increase the possibility of Crawford becoming a PPV attraction for him in the future. I think there’s no chance at all of that happening though. I see Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley having a better chance of becoming PPV stars than Crawford, and I don’t see either of those two guys ever becoming PPV attractions. Arum would be better off going for the best money fight available for Pacquiao by putting him in with Amir Khan rather than going for the Pacquiao-Crawford fight. It’s the smarter move. Putting Crawford in with Pacquiao in hopes of increasing his value for Top Rank won’t work in my opinion.



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