Arum working hard at promoting Crawford vs. Postol

By Boxing News - 07/22/2016 - Comments

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By Jeff Aranow: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is hoping for success on Saturday night for his Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arum’s major problem is that the Crawford-Postol fight is on HBO pay-per-view, and unfortunately neither of these guys is PPV worthy fighters.

Crawford, 28, is from a Omaha, Nebraska, a small town with a population of only 600,000. Postol is from Ukraine. The Crawford vs. Postol fight is going for $49.99 on PPV in the U.S, and that’s a lot of money to spend for a fight that really should be either on regular HBO or better yet on free television on one of the free network channels.

The reaction on the various internet boxing forums from fans about whether they will be purchasing the Crawford-Postol card on PPV has been largely negative.

While these fans love the fight, they don’t like the idea of paying $49.99 to see two non-stars fight. Of course, these are hardcore boxing fans, so it’s possible that the casual fans might want to buy the card. However, if hardcore fans aren’t excited about purchasing the Crawford vs. Postol fight card, then it stands to reason that casual fans will be even less interested in purchasing it because they’ll likely have never heard of these guys.

Arum has now started comparing Crawford’s fighting style to that of Sugar Ray Robinson. Having seen a lot of Robinson’s old fights, I don’t think I would make that comparison. Robinson was not counter puncher like Crawford, and he was a much, much more exciting fighter than he could ever hope to be. If Crawford really could fight like Robinson, then Arum wouldn’t have problems selling his fights on PPV because fans would want to see another Robinson. Crawford is not another Robinson though. He’s just another counter puncher and not a particularly aggressive one.

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“Crawford’s style, which originated with Sugar Ray Robinson then Muhammad Ali and then Sugar Ray Leonard, Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather, is a style which specifies rhythm and movement,” Arum said via ringtv.com. “It’s almost like jazz and it has the virtue of allowing someone who is a real practitioner to do special riffs in the middle of the fight.”

If Crawford did fight like Robinson, he would be a lot more exciting to watch. Arum might want to have a talk with the 28-year-old to see if he can get him to be a lot more aggressive in his future fights if he wants to turn him into a PPV attraction. The way that Crawford fights right now, he’s probably never going to be a true PPV fighter.

Arum can certainly try and force feed the boxing public Crawford’s fights on PPV, but he’ll likely cripple his career by hiding him away like that because fewer fans will see his fights than they already are. Personally speaking, I would never purchase a fight on PPV if I wasn’t familiar with the fighter. I also wouldn’t purchase a fight on PPV if I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the fighters’ style of fighting. Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a counter puncher and highly successful as a PPV fighter. However, Mayweather was much faster than Crawford and more entertaining both inside and outside of the ring. Mayweather also was former U.S Olympian. The difference between Mayweather and Crawford is huge in terms of talent and personality.

“They have a way of fighting which is now a lot less robotic than it used to be with a high degree of intelligence,” Arum said about Eastern European fighters via ringtv.com. “But it’s more straight up and straight ahead. It’s an interesting style and the coaches have perfected that style over the years.”

Brandon Rios vs. Miguel Cotto unlikely to happen

Welterweight Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 30 KOs) met with his promoters at Top Rank earlier this week to talk about his next fight. Rios had recently retired after his loss to Tim Bradley last year, but he quickly decided to continue his career. Miguel Cotto’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports reportedly spoke to Top Rank about a potential fight between him and Rios. However, the interest in a fight between Rios and Cotto was cool, according to ESPN.com, so the fight likely will not happen. It would have been a match-up made at a catch-weight of 150 pounds.

Cotto, 36, would have likely taken a lot of heat from the fight fans for facing Rios, because of how bad he looked in losing to Bradley in his last fight. Cotto lost his last fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in November of 2015, but it was a competitive fight. Cotto didn’t look sluggish, overweight and over-matched the way that Rios looked.

Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) plans on fighting on December 3, but it probably won’t against Rios. The fact there was interest in Rios for Cotto suggests that Roc Nation Sports isn’t looking for a major player at 147 for him to fight. Previously, Roc Nation was in negotiations to match Cotto against 42-year-old welterweight Juan Manuel Marquez, who hasn’t fought in two years. The negotiations reportedly stalled over the weight for the fight. Marquez is said to have wanted to go no higher than 147. Cotto hasn’t fought at welterweight for the last seven years.

It’s going to be extremely difficult for Top Rank to do much with the 30-year-old Rios. He’s lost three out of his last seven fights since 2012. When you look at two of Rios’s wins against Diego Chaves and Richard Abril, he probably should have lost those fights as well. The judges gave Rios a 12 round decision win over Abril in 2012 in a fight that Rios appeared to lose. In Rios’ fight against Diego Chaves in 2014, referee Vic Drakulich disqualified Chaves in the 9th round for throwing an elbow. Chaves was ahead at the time and on his way to beating Rios by a 10 round decision. You can argue that Rios has really lost five out his last seven fights. The question is why is Top Rank holding onto him? It might be better for them to cut Rios loose and focus on signing talent that has the potential to go somewhere in the 147lb division.