By Dan Ambrose: If you were hoping to see WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford (24-0, 17 KO’s) move up in weight to 140 to try and face guys like Manny Pacquiao, Ruslan Provodnikov, Lucas Matthysse or Chris Algieiri, you’re going to have to wait a while for those fights to happen if they ever do, because Bob Arum of Top Rank plans on matching Crawford up against his #1 WBO lightweight challenger 32-year-old Raymundo Beltran (29-6-1, 17 KO’s) next on November 8th, according to Steve Kim.
The Crawford-Beltran fight still isn’t official, so there’s an outside chance that Crawford could fight someone else, but considering that Arum promotes Beltran and that he really doesn’t have anyone else to match him against right now, you can bet that the Beltran-Crawford fight will very likely take place.
“Bob Arum says Terrence Crawford could return on Nov 8th, mentioned Ray Beltran as a dance partner,” via Steve Kim’s twitter.
Beltran-Crawford is a fight that hardcore boxing fans would like, but it’s not one that will interest casual boxing fans because Beltran isn’t well known and neither is Crawford. That’s why it’s important that Arum doesn’t waste too much more of Crawford’s career at lightweight because the division is barren of well-known fighters. As much as hardcore fans would like Crawford-Beltran, it’s still nowhere near as good a fight as Crawford vs. Matthysse, Adrien Broner, Pacquiao, Danny Garcia or Provodnikov, to name just a small handful of better fights.
Crawford was hurt in his fight against the smallish 5’5″ Gamboa, and it could be that Arum doesn’t want to put him in with guys his own size because then we might see him no longer dominate the way he’s been doing against the smaller lightweights. If you remember Brandon Rios when he was fighting at lightweight, he was dominating just the same way that Crawford was with his big size advantage over the lighter opposition he was facing. But when he moved up to 140 and then 147, he’s looked mediocre against guys his own size. We could see the same thing with Crawford, and that might be one of the reasons why Arum is dragging his feet about moving him up in weight.
Crawford can stick around the division, but he’ll never become a pay-per-view fighter facing the likes of Beltran, Richard Abril, Miguel Vazquez or Omar Figueroa, even if he could get any of those guys to fight him. I don’t see why they would want to fight him because the money isn’t big enough due to Crawford not being a big star yet. That’s why as long as Crawford stays at lightweight the best you’ll see of him is making simple title defenses.
Crawford, weighing 152, defeated Yuriorkis Gamboa last month by a 9th round TKO in Omaha, Nebraska. It was by far the biggest fight of Crawford’s career, but unfortunately in beating Gamboa, Crawford lost his only well-known opponent at 135. Now he’s stuck fighting the likes of Beltran and whoever else Arum can dig up at lightweight. Former lightweight champion Juan Diaz could be a possibility in the near future as well, but he’s been out of the loop for so many years that even the newer hardcore fans have never heard of him.
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