Bob Arum wants to make Conor McGregor vs Terence Crawford fight

By Boxing News - 01/21/2020 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Top Rank Bob Arum wants to put together 2 fights between UFC star Conor McGregor and Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford with one of them being under boxing rules and the other MMA, according to TalkBoxing Podcast. This would be one way for Arum to turn Crawford into a big star by matching him against McGregor.

Arum has failed to put Crawford in with any of the talented and/or popular fighters during his career at 140 and 147. Crawford will be turning 33 this year, and he’s running out of time.

Arum wants to talk to Dana White of UFC to put together a 2-fight deal between McGregor and Crawford. It’ll be interesting to see if Arum’s efforts bear fruit.

It’s a crazy idea that Arum has, because the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion McGregor is currently looking to put together lucrative fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

It’s a dead certainty that McGregor will get one of those 2 superstars for a big pay-per-view bout, which will rake in the dough in attracting casual fans of both sports. McGregor fought Mayweather Jr. in 2017 and brought in a whopping 4.3 million pay-per-views, making the second biggest fight in PPV history behind Mayweather-Pacquiao.

Crawford not a huge star in boxing

Given that Crawford, 32, isn’t that popular in boxing, there would be no gain for McGregor in picking over Mayweather or Pacquiao. Arum might not realize that Crawford has zero chance of being picked by McGregor for a fight. You have to believe that if McGregor can’t get Pacquiao or Mayweather, his next target would Canelo Alvarez. Now that would be a fight. McGregor vs. Crawford would small fries in comparison.

Arum wants to do 2 McGregor vs. Crawford fights

“You see Conor McGregor talking about Mayweather and talking about Pacquiao,” said Arum to Talkboxing Podcast. “I’d love to have Crawford fight Conor McGregor, once MMA rules, and once boxing rules.

“I think Crawford has a wrestling background, and he wouldn’t be averse to fighting McGregor with MMA and UFC rules,” said Arum. “So that’s something that has occured to use in the last couple of days, and we’ll be pursuing it with Dana White,” said Arum.

It would be fun to be a fly on the wall to observe a conversation between Arum and White in talking McGregor-Crawford. Dana will probably humor Arum, and play it tactical by not ruffling his feathers by giving it to him straight by saying Crawford isn’t popular enough.

For big paydays against boxers, these are good options for McGregor:

  • Canelo Alvarez
  • Manny Pacquiao
  • Floyd Mayweather Jr.
  • Gennadiy Golovkin
  • Jermall Charlo
  • Errol Spence Jr.

Crawford would be well behind all of those guys as far as being a good option for McGregor.

Oscar: It would be a shame if Crawford vs. Spence never happens

“Bob Arum works with everybody, and he likes to work with everybody and make these fights happen,” said De La Hoya to Fighthub. “You know what I’m saying? So hopefully we can see that, because it would be a shame if we can’t see those fights,” said De La Hoya on Crawford vs. Spence.

“It would be a shame, because then we wouldn’t know who the best welterweight is,” said De La Hoya in continuing on the Spence vs. Crawford bout. “Who I think is the best, and going to be the best is Vergil Ortiz. Crawford is a beast. I don’t know how Spence is after his accident. Crawford is a beast. I love the way he fights. So right now, I think Crawford is the best guy,” said De La Hoya.

The Spence vs. Crawford fight isn’t going to happen soon, because Errol has a lot of other great fights available to him through PBC. Crawford will probably get a shot at fighting Spence in 3 more years after he faces all the PBC guys first.

With all the fights that Spence has available to him with Premier Boxing Champions fighters, Crawford has got a long wait ahead of him. Arum would do Crawford a big favor if he talked him into moving up to 154 and 160 to go after the Charlo brothers, Jeison Rosario, Jarrett Hurd, Erislandy Lara and Tony Harrison.

If Crawford could beat some of those guys, he’d win new fans. But Crawford isn’t going to get popular fighting the guys Arum has been matching him against.

De La Hoya tells how to beat Terence Crawford

“Fight him. Come on, baby, bring it on,” said De La Hoya in what he would do to try and beat Crawford if he fought him. You’d jab the heck out of him, and then work your combinations behind it. You know? That’s what I would do. I’d walk him down, and not let him push you back. I would do that personally. Not many fighters can do that.

“Fighters that are used to going forward. They just don’t know how to fight going backwards, because they’ve never done it. So if you take them out of their comfort zone, then it becomes a psychological game there.

“Kind of like you take away their power so to speak,” said De La Hoya in giving the keys to beat Crawford. “I think he’s incredible, and a special fighter, and hopefully we’ll see those big fights happen,” said De La Hoya on Crawford vs. Spence.

It makes sense what De La Hoya says about how to beat Crawford by walking him down. At this point, Crawford can’t run from his opponents like he used to do during his career, because he’ll get booed, and ruin his popularity, such as it is.

Crawford’s last opponent Egidijus Kavaliauskas did a good job of pressuring him through the first five rounds, but he ran out of gas at the midpoint in the fight. Terence then came on and stopped Kavaliauskas in the 9th round last December at Madison Square Garden in New York. Crawford was hurt in that fight, and almost dropped.

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