By Chris Williams: Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum says he’s still working on putting together a unification fight for WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford against IBF/WBC champion Errol Spence or WBA champ Manny Pacquiao.
Arum doesn’t say who his preference is for Crawford’s next fight, but it’s likely that he’s going to put his energy into getting Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) for him.
For a long time, Arum has talked about wanting to match Crawford against Pacquiao and Spence, but it’s not happened. Given the magnitude of those fights, it’s not likely that Arum will be able to put them together in 2020.
Crawford-Pacquiao and Crawford-Spence would need to take place in front of fans to take advantage of the enormous gate. That’s probably not going to happen this year.
Spence and Pacquiao on Crawford’s shortlist
“What we’re working on and hopefully we can accomplish is a fight that everybody wants to see because Crawford and Manny Pacquiao or Crawford and Errol Spence,” said Arum to the Ringside Reporter.
“I think Spence, they want to take another fight before he faces Crawford, but I know Spence and Crawford have been talking. So we’re going to move ahead with them. You can’t put Crawford in other than a big fight,” said Arum.
Now that we know what Crawford’s shortlist is for his next fight, it would be good to know what his Plan-B options are for his next fight. Spence and Pacquiao are a pipe dream for Arum and Crawford for 2020.
These are more realistic options for Crawford:
- Yordenis Ugas
- Sergey Lipinets
- Claudio Clayton
- Mikael Zewski
Those would be good options for Crawford to fight behind closed doors. Of course, if Crawford insists on fighting with fans present, then he could be waiting for all of 2020.
It would be great if Pacquiao or Spence agreed to fight Crawford this year, but it’ not looking good now.
Crawford needs a live gate
“So, you’ve got Pacquiao, Spence, and maybe Shawn Porter,” said Arum. “I mean, those are possible fights for Crawford, and again, we’re getting in an area where we probably need a live gate. So we may need to take that fight outside of the United States.,” said Arum.
It makes sense for a live gate being needed for Crawford if he’s fortunate enough to get a fight against Spence or Pacquiao in 2020. Those would be big fights for Crawford, and he may never get another shot at Spence and Pacquiao. It would be a shame for Crawford if, after 12 years as a pro, he gets stuck fighting Pacquiao or Spence behind closed doors.
If the pandemic makes it impossible for Crawford to fight Pacquiao or Spence in front of a live audience in 2020 and 2021, then he’s going to need to make a decision about what he wants to do. Arum said it himself recently that his fighters that reuse to fight behind closed doors, then they may have to sit on the sidelines while other fighters step up.
The good news for Crawford is he has almost no chance of getting a fight against IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) in 2020, as he’s going to take a tune-up fight against Danny Garcia next. Spence needs to make sure that he’s fully recovered from his car crash on October 10 last year.
Pacquiao and Mikey Garcia are believed to be fighting each other next. While it’s possible that Pacquiao may elect to fight the switch-hitting Crawford, it’s doubtful to the extreme that he’ll take the fight. Mikey is easy money for the 41-year-old Pacquiao, and it’s a match that is too good to be true for him.