By Sean Jones: Terence Crawford is confident that his next fight in September will be against Manny Pacquiao. The WBO 147lb champion Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) says negotiations are underway with Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) for a fight between them.
Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum has a different spin on the subject of Pacquiao facing Terence. Arum says he’s not sure if one of the countries will step up to stage the Pacquiao-Crawford fight. They can’t have Crawford and Pacquiao fighting without a crowd in the United States, and that also applies to the other top 147-pounders.
Unfortunately for the 32-year-old Crawford, he’s picked an awful time for him to start putting Pacquiao and the top PBC welterweights on his wish list for his next fight. We’re right in the middle of a pandemic that the U.S hasn’t seen since 1918. Crawford is asking for the impossible with his desire to face Pacquiao.
Arum will likely match Crawford against another lower-level contender that fans have never heard of for his next fight. In Crawford’s last fight, he beat Egidijus Kavaliauskas last December, but he didn’t perform at a high level. Before that, Crawford defeated past his prime Amir Khan, Jose Benavidez Jr, and Jeff Horn. Those four are the extent of Crawford’s experience at 147.
Live audiences needed for Crawford
Crawford won’t get any of the four welterweights that Arum mentioned on Monday as in the running for his next fight because he can’t fight them without an audience. Arum said these names as candidates for Crawford’s next match:
- Keith Thurman
- Shawn Porter
- Kell Brook
- Yordenis Ugas
Kell Brook has already been ruled out as a possible opponent for Crawford’s next fight due to the difficulties in him getting into the U.S. Of all the 147-pound fighters in Crawford’s list; Brook would be the most straightforward fight to get made.
Keith Thurman is coming off of hand surgery
Thurman lost his last fight to Pacquiao, and he subsequently had hand surgery. As a result, ‘One Time’ Thurman will probably want a tune-up fight for his next contest unless Pacquiao is willing to give him a rematch. That’s where the money is for Thurman.
If Thurman were to face Crawford, it would be up to him to bring the fans in to purchase. We’ve already seen that Crawford can’t sell on pay-per-view. He’s someone that needs popular guys to bring in the buys. The question is, why would they want to fight Crawford if all he has is the WBO belt? That’s not the title that a lot of fans view as prestigious.
“My next fight should be Pacquiao, we’re in talks with Team Pacquiao and I’ve been hoping that fight can get made. So if we can get that fight secure and signed then hopefully that can be our next fight,” said Crawford to Brian Custer’s Last Stand podcast.
The changes of Pacquiao facing Crawford next are ultra-slim to near impossible, but that won’t keep him and his promoter from mentioning the Filipino star’s name.
Arum and Crawford might be just name-dropping Pacquiao’s name to get attention from boxing fans and to give the impression that the fight can happen. It doesn’t look like Pacquiao is going to take that fight with Terence.
Gennadiy Golovkin, Mikey Garcia, and Errol Spence Jr are the three names that have been mentioned for Pacquiao. Team Pacquiao isn’t talking up a fight with Crawford, and that’s a clear sign the fight isn’t happening. Manny’s trainer Freddie Roach said he wants him to fight Mikey, but he might fight GGG.
Terence thinks PBC is avoiding him
“They didn’t want to put them in the ring with me because they didn’t want to have Top Rank have the edge over their head where one of their fighters took out one of their top welterweights fighters,” said Crawford. “They (PBC) just fight each other,” said Crawford in realizing that he’s got little chance of fighting any of the elite Premier Boxing Champions 147-pounders.
I don’t think it’s a situation of PBC welterweights avoiding Crawford. It’s more of a case of him not being famous, and not having anything to offer. Crawford has been fighting no-names most of his career, and that’s kept him from rising to a star.
The other reason why the PBC fighters likely aren’t bothering with Crawford is that he’s a southpaw counter-puncher, who moves a lot. Those three big negatives Crawford has going against him. The final reason why Crawford isn’t getting the PBC fighters to face is he’s not popular.
If Crawford had the popularity of a Mayweather, then it wouldn’t be an issue. The PBC fighters would all be looking to face him, but he’s not popular, so it’s not even open for discussion. I don’t see that changing for the remainder of Crawford’s career. Crawford needs to change the way he fights and become more aggressive.
In Crawford’s last match against Egidijus Kavaliauskas, he was more entertaining than he usually is, and he made it fun to watch. I don’t know that Crawford will continue to fight like that because he got hurt a couple of times in that contest.
