By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford’s trainer Brian McIntyre revealed on social media on Wednesday that Keith Thurman is demanding “$10 million” to challenge ‘Bud’ for his WBO welterweight title.
Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) was serious when he said this week that he wants Crawford to “send the contract” so that he can sign it live on Instagram.
What Thurman didn’t say is he wanted Adrien Broner-type money in requesting a cool $10 million for the fight with Crawford.
Thurman got a big payday in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao, so it’s not surprising that he wants equal cash for a match against Terence.
Thurman won’t come cheap
Well, it’s up to Top Rank boss Bob Arum if he wants to come up with that much green to get ‘One Time’ to sign on the dotted line for the fight with the 32-year-old Terence.
It’s not as if Crawford is getting any younger, as he’s starting to understand that 30s look to him, and it won’t be long before he gets that dad’s body. Arum will need to think hard about whether it’s worth it to put in that last-ditch effort to try and turn Crawford into a star.
It’s the trainer BoMac that’s saying that Thurman, 31, wants $10 million. Maybe he’d be willing to agree to less than that amount, but anything is possible.
Thurman is a big star, and he’d be the one that would single-handedly be driving the pay-per-view sales in a fight against the reserved Crawford, who isn’t a great talker.
As we saw in Thurman’s last fight against Manny Pacquiao last July, he’s the one that did all the heavy lifting in creating interest in their match on Fox pay-per-view previous year.
If you look at fighters from the past like Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao, those guys didn’t become super popular until after they fought Oscar De La Hoya.
They had to fight De La Hoya for them to become superstars, and it was well worth it in the end for them to take less than what they wanted in terms of money to make those fights happen.
Crawford needs Keith’s name
If Top Rank wants Crawford to become a star, they might need to invest in making that happen by paying Thurman’s $10 million asking prices. Thurman isn’t going to be around for too much longer.
He’s playing the flute, reading a lot of books, and his mind doesn’t seem to be there for boxing anymore. If Crawford doesn’t face Thurman now, this might be his last chance in making that happen.
It could also be Terence’s final opportunity to become a star because he’s not likely to win in a fight against Errol Spence Jr.
At least if Crawford fights Thurman now, he has a good chance of beating him given his injuries and how mentally disengaged he is at this point in his 13-year pro career.
“See, if he [Thurman] wanted to fight, he’d have Al [Haymon] send the contract [to Top Rank] with a boatload of money, but guess what? He doesn’t have a promoter to put up the money because Al Haymon isn’t putting up s***.
“Now all you people talking s*** about Bud not fighting Thurman, sit down somewhere. Crawford haters are mad,” said BoMac on social media.
If Crawford wants to be a star, then he’s going to need One Time Thurman’s name on his resume because the guys that Arum is matching him up with aren’t doing anything for his career.
Matching Crawford against the likes of Amir Khan, Jose Benavidez, and Egidijus Kavaliauskas isn’t getting the job done. Crawford needs one name to take his career to the next level, and it might be Thurman.