By Allan Fox: Bob Arum said this week that he hopes to be revealing the next opponent for Terence Crawford within ten days for a fight in November. Arum needs to know what kind of crowd, if any, will be allowed into the battle by November.
Knowing what size of the crowd will help presumably help determine how much money Arum can afford to spend on his fighter WBO welterweight champion, Crawford’s opponent.
There have been rumors on social media that ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter is the guy that Arum is interested in getting for Crawford. If that turns out to be valid, then it would make it vital that crowds of a limited capacity be allowed back into sporting events by November.
Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) won’t come cheap. He’s going to likely want to be paid millions for a fight against Crawford. As such, that makes it necessary for the match to be staged in front of fans. Crawford-Porter will be on ESPN+ pay-per-view if it happens.
Arum to make an annoucement soon
Crawford can’t fight another Egidijus Kavaliauskas level fighter for him to be able to do pay-per-view. Arum will need to make a massive upgrade in Crawford’s opponent for him to be able to ask the U.S boxing fans to pay to see him fight.
“I’m very optimistic that Terence will be fighting in November,” said Arum to IFL TV. “It’s going to be a big announcement, hopefully.
“We’re on tenterhooks because a lot of the questions zero in on ‘can there be crowds and how many in the crowd?'” said Arum.
If Porter isn’t the one that faces Crawford, then Arum will be looking at someone that he has a good chance of signing. We’re talking about a fighter that wouldn’t break the Top Rank bank for them to get as Terence’s B-side opponent. It would be another showcase fight for Crawford, but this isn’t anything new for him.
It’s standard at this point. The only non-showcase fight Crawford has had during his 12-year professional career was his 2014 bout against Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Max Kellerman mentioned a lot of fighters that have very little chance of fighting Crawford. The ones this writer believes that Top Rank will pick for Terence are from these two:
- Sergey Lipinets
- Ray Robinson
Lipinets (16-1, 12 KOs) is ranked #3 with the IBF. He’s in the position to challenge for the WBA title against champion Errol Spence in the future. Arum could easily set-up a fight between Crawford and Lipinets for November, and the boxing fans wouldn’t complain too much about it.
Pay-per-view might not be an option
Crawford-Lipinets isn’t a tremendous fight, and it wouldn’t be nearly big enough for Arum to peddle it on ESPN PPV. In some ways, it would be a slight upgrade from Crawford’s last title defense against the ‘Mean Machine’ Kavaliauskas last December. Lipinets is well known with casual boxing fans from his fights against Mikey Garcia and Lamont Peterson.
“I’m very optimistic that Terence will be fighting in November,” said Arum. “It’s going to be a big announcement, hopefully. We’re on tenterhooks because a lot of the questions zero in on ‘can there be crowds and how many in the crowd?'”
Ray Robinson (24-3-2, 12 KOs) is another guy that Top Rank could quickly sign for Crawford’s next fight. Robinson is ranked #14 with the WBC, and he’s struggled lately in his last three matches.
He’s had two controversial draws that many believe he should have won against Josh Kelly and Egidijus Kavaliauskas/ Robinson also lost to Yordenis Ugas by a seventh-round knockout in February 2018.