Arum talks Terence Crawford’s future potential opponents

By Boxing News - 12/03/2019 - Comments

By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford has more options for future fights than many people think according to his promoter Bob Arum.

While a lot of boxing fans frequently point out that Crawford (35-0, 26 KOs) has been frozen out by Premier Boxing Champions to fight their top PBC welterweight, Arum says the only guy they’re interested in matching Crawford against with PBC is Shawn Porter for the time being.

Prograis, Ramirez & Taylor options for Crawford

Apart from Porter and potentially Spence, if he comes back from his car accident, the guys that Arum is interested in matching Crawford against are the following light welterweights:

  • Jose Ramirez
  • Josh Taylor
  • Regis Prograis

“Hope is coming from the junior welterweights, like Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor and Regis Prograis,” said Arum to Thaboxinggoice about potential opponents for Crawford in 2020.

“When people get a chance to see more of Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez, they’ll realize that they’re competitive with Terence Crawford, who started at lightweight, and then won the belts at junior middleweight.

“So it’s not like he’s a big welterweight. Jose Ramirez will be fighting in February against Viktor Postol in China. After that, Jose has told me that he wants either Josh Taylor or Terence Crawford.

“I’ve talked to Josh Taylor’s people, and they’re interested in fighting Terence. So I think Terence is going to have a very busy 2020,” said Arum. “Those are three really good opponents for Terence in a couple of years ahead.

Taylor, Prograis and Ramirez are excellent options for Crawford, as long as Arum can get them to sign to face him. It would likely need to be on ESPN PPV for those fights to get made, though.

It’ll be surprising if Crawford fights those three 140-lb fighters, because he might scare away some of them. The way that Crawford fights would be a problem in getting all three of those fighters to face him.

Shawn Porter the only PBC fighter Arum wants for Crawford

“When we look over at PBC, the only fight that would be of interest would be Shawn Porter, because Errol Spence has suffered that terrible accident,” said Arum to Thaboxingvoice. “We don’t know when or if he’ll be available.

“Porter showed in the Spence fight that he’s a lot better than ordinary, and he’s an elite welterweight. With Errol Spence, we don’t know, because of the accident we had. That’s it. I’m talking what exists now. Danny Garcia is not a top welterweight. He’s just ordinary,” said Arum.

Former two division world champion Danny Garcia has already been beaten a couple times at 147 by Keith Thurman and Porter, and it’s clear he’s more of an opponent level fighter. When Garcia fought at 140, he was a world champion, but he lacks the talent to hold down a title at 147.

Errol Spence was a guy that Arum was planning on putting in with Crawford, but his horrible car crash last October has put those plans out of reach for the time being. If Spence comes back from his car crash, then a fight between him and Crawford can potentially happen in 2020 or 2021.

Pacquiao turned down Crawford fight – Arum

“Manny Pacquiao is over 40-years of age, and has repeatedly turned down Crawford, and obviously it’s not a competitive match,” said Arum. “A Spence fight against Crawford would have been a 50-50 fight, but who knows if that can ever happen,” said Arum.

Arum says he’s already tried to get Manny Pacquiao to fight Crawford many times, but he’s not interested in that fight. Other than him, Spence and Porter, there’s no one else that interests Arum.

Crawford will exhaust the 140-lb fighters on Arum’s list soon, and he’ll need to fight other guys fight. Unless Arum is going to do rematches, Crawford might need to take on some of the junior middleweights.

Now that Pacquiao is with PBC, you can forget about Crawford ever getting a fight against him, because that’s NOT going to happen.

Besputin a future option for Crawford

“After Besputin comes through with that fight, it’ll make him a very attractive opponent for Crawford. Terence’s contract with us probably extends passed the time for him to retire,” said Arum.

WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Alexander Besputin (14-0, 9 KOs) has been ordered to defend his title against Yordenis Ugas (24-4, 11 KOs) next, and he might not win that fight. Arum likes the idea of matching Crawford against Besputin in a unification fight, but it’ll be surprising if he gets passed Ugas.

Arum is really high on Porter, but Ugas did a number on him in their fight last March. This writer had Ugas easily beating Porter. The scores were terrible, and it just looked like the A-side guy Porter was given a win over a less popular fighter.

If Crawford has to fight Ugas, he might have problems. Ugas has the kind of talent that would give the aging 32-year-old Crawford headaches. That fight might be a 50-50 affair, whether Arum wants to admit it or not. Besputin won’t beat Ugas, unless the same type of judges that worked the Porter-Ugas fight are on duty.

Besputin didn’t look that great in capturing the vacant WBA secondary welterweight title last Saturday in defeating Radzhab Butaev by a 12 round decision in Monte Carlo. He looked like a blue collar level fighter, who will only hold onto his WBA for a short space of time.

Terence defends against Egidijus Kavaliauskas on December 14

Crawford is defending against his WBO mandatory Egidijus Kavaliauskas (21-0-1, 17 kOs) this month on ESPN+ on December 14 at Madison Square Garden in New York.  It’s interesting that ESPN hasn’t started marketing the fight yet, as there’s now less than 2 weeks to go for December 14, and there’s absolutely no buzz about the fight.

Nothing is being said about Crawford vs. Kavaliauskas. It’s as if Crawford isn’t fighting at all, and that’s troubling. When you look at the marketing that went into WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s rematch with Luis Ortiz on November 23, and then compare it to Crawford’s upcoming fight with Kavaliauskas, it’s like night and day.

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