Kellerman: Pacquiao shouldn’t fight Crawford

By Boxing News - 11/20/2015 - Comments

1-LR_MAYPAC-TRAPPFOTOS-FINAL PRESSER-9963By Dan Ambrose: HBO analyst Max Kellerman thinks Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) should steer clear of a fight against WBO 140lb champion Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) for his final fight of his career next year in April. Kellerman sees Crawford as too mean, and too difficult of a fight for Pacquiao for his last fight of his career.

While Kellerman acknowledges that Pacquiao is faster, stronger, more athletic and more experienced than Crawford, he still sees Crawford as a bad option due to his meanness.

“If I were Manny, I wouldn’t take Crawford,” Kellerman said to Fighthype.com. “Crawford is fast. Manny is faster. Manny hits harder. Manny’s much more experienced, but Crawford has a meanness inside him. If I’m a fighter and I’m thinking this is my last fight, the last person I’m thinking is that dude [Crawford],” Kellerman said.

I think it’s more than judge meanness that makes Crawford a bad option for Pacquiao. It’s the fact that Crawford isn’t well-known with the casual boxing fans. It means that Pacquiao likely won’t be getting a lot of money due to low PPV sales for a fight against Crawford, and won’t get a lot of respect from fans if he beats him.

If the fans don’t know who Crawford is, then it’s not really work much to fight him. If only the hardcore boxing fans know who Crawford is in the U.S, then it’s not going to be worth much for Pacquiao to fight him. It would be better for Pacquiao to face guys that the casual boxing fans know about like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Amir Khan or Tim Bradley.

Obviously, Canelo and Khan would be much better options for Pacquiao than fighting Crawford. If Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum wants him to fight Crawford, then Pacquiao should discuss whether Arum will make up the difference in lost PPV sales by fighting Crawford instead of arguably more popular fighters like Canelo or Canelo. If Arum isn’t going to do that, then Pacquiao needs to look in another direction.

Pacquiao has already fought a number of Arum’s less popular fighters in his Top Rank stable in Joshua Clottey, Brandon Rios and Bradley. He would be better off not making the same mistake yet again by choosing a fighter that won’t attract the interest from the casual boxing fans.

If Arum wants to turn Crawford into a star, then he should match him against Canelo, Ruslan Provodnikov or Viktor Postol. I don’t think Canelo would bother fighting Crawford because he doesn’t have a huge fan base, but Arum should at least try and make that fight happen.



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