By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford still doesn’t have an opponent for his next title defense but some believe it’ll be Kell Brook. Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum gave an interview this week with RingTV, but he DIDN’T say who he’ll be facing.
Arum was just happy that ESPN showed two of Crawford’s old fights this week against Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Amir Khan.
At this stage of the game, it’s unknown when Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) will be facing Brook or whoever comes next for him. With boxing having been closed down from the coronavirus, there’s no way of specifying when this bout will take place.
Brook hasn’t taken on a quality opponent in three years since his 11th round knockout defeat to Errol Spence Jr. in May 2017. In Brook’s three fights since then, he’s beaten Mark DeLuca, Michael Zerafa and Siarhei Rabchanka. None of those fighters are major players at 154.
Kell Brook would be step up for Crawford
It’s fair to say that the career of Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) has been in a giant freefall since his loss to middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin in 2016. With that said, Brook is still a major step up in class for Crawford in terms of the opposition that he’s been fighting during his entire 12-year career.
It’s unfortunate that Crawford hasn’t gotten the fights that he’s needed for him to become a big star in the sport of boxing. Brook too past it at this point in his career to give Crawford much of a surge in popularity.
If this fight had taken place four years ago before GGG and Spence destroyed Brook in consecutive fights, then it would mean something. Right now, Brook is just a step up for Crawford from the unimportant opposition that he’s been matched against.
Top Rank has hit it out of the park in turning fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Tyson Fury into stars, but they’ve whiffed with Crawford. Although Crawford has talent, he hasn’t been put in with good enough opposition to take his career to the next level.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya said as much when he stated recently that he fears that Crawford may never make it to the Boxing Hall of Fame because he hasn’t been matched against good enough opposition.
Losing to Brook would be a HUGE blow for Crawford
Terence will obviously be a big favorite to beat Brook, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to win. Brook can punch with either hand, and he’s quite capable of knocking the inexperienced Crawford out.
I say ‘inexperienced’ because Crawford hasn’t faced the type of guys that Brook has fought during his career. Indeed, there’s no comparison between the fighters that Brook has fought and the softer opposition that Crawford has been feeding off of for 12 years.
These are Brook’s best opponents:
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- Errol Spence Jr
- Shawn Porter
Here are Crawford’s best opponents:
- Amir Khan
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
- Jeff Horn
- Jose Benavidez Jr
- Yuriorkis Gamboa
I dare to say that Brook’s opponents would fly through EVERYONE from Crawford’s list and score nothing but knockouts. GGG would crush everyone that Crawford has faced, and so would Porter and Spence. So for that reason, a win for Brook over Crawford wouldn’t be that much of a shocker because he hasn’t fought the elite level fighters during his career that Kell has.
Crawford vs. Brook: Will it be on pay-per-view?
It’s questionable whether a fight between Crawford and Brook is a big enough one for it to be shown on pay-per-view. Crawford’s fight with Amir Khan was televised on ESPN PPV, and it reportedly didn’t bring in big numbers. The thing is, Khan worked hard for a lot of years to try and win over boxing fans in the U.S by fighting in that country.
The numbers, such as they were, that the Crawford-Khan fight pulled in on pay-per-view were in large part due to the hard work that Khan did in fighting 10 times in the U.S before facing Crawford in April of 2019.
In contrast, Brook has fought only TWICE in the U.S in his matches against little known Luis Galarza in 2011 in Atlantic City, and Shawn Porter in 2014 in New York. The casual boxing fans in the U.S have no idea who Brook is, and they likely won’t be eager to purchase a fight between him and Crawford on pay-per-view if Top Rank chooses to ask fans to pay to see it.
There are fighters that Crawford could fight on pay-per-view, and fans would likely be willing to buy in his numbers. Unfortunately, Brook likely isn’t one of them. Putting Crawford’s fight against Brook on pay-per-view could prevent a lot of casual fans from seeing the fight.
With the U.S economy doing poorly right now from the negative effects from the coronavirus, putting a fight between Crawford and Brook on pay-per-view immediately after the dust settles from the virus probably isn’t a good idea.
