Bob Arum to announce Terence Crawford’s next fight next week, says it’s a “Major fight” on PPV

By Boxing News - 03/29/2021 - Comments

By Matt Lieberman: Bob Arum of Top Rank says he’ll be making a big announcement within a week of Terence Crawford’s next fight, which he’s calling a “Major fight” on pay-per-per-view.  Arum says they’ll be revealing the date and location when the announcement is made.

Vergil Ortiz Jr, the #2 contender with the World Boxing Organization, would fit the description of being a “Major fight” for Crawford.

The unbeaten Ortiz (17-0, 17 KOs) called out Crawford a little over a week ago following his win over Maurice Hooker in Fort Worth, Texas.

At the time, Crawford dismissed the idea of fighting the 22-year-old Ortiz, saying that he needs to “earn” the fight against him despite being ranked #2 with the WBO. Vergil’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya, seemed optimistic that he would fight with Crawford next.

With the way that Arum is talking, it sounds like Crawford will be fighting Manny Pacquiao or Errol Spence Jr next.

Recently, Arum tried to set up a fight between WBO welterweight champion Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) and Pacquiao. He had said that if he couldn’t get the Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) fight made, he would look at potentially setting up a fight between Crawford and his WBO mandatory Shawn Porter.

With Porter’s recent comment to Crawford on Twitter two weeks ago about him being ready to fight him in May, it doesn’t appear that he’ll be Bud’s next opponent.

That means we could be seeing Crawford finally getting his dream fight against the 42-year-old Pacquiao.

Aside from Pacquiao, Porter, Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman, and Spence, Crawford doesn’t have the popularity needed to fight on pay-per-view against the regular contenders in the 147-lb division.

Image: Bob Arum to announce Terence Crawford's next fight next week, says it's a "Major fight" on PPV

“There will be an announcement on Bud Crawford’s next fight within a week,” said Arum to Barbershop Conversations.

“I can’t reveal it now, but it’ll be a MAJOR fight. “A date, and a place and everything, but I’m not at liberty to discuss it at this time.

“No,” said Arum when asked if he can give a date for Crawford’s next fight. “This is a big deal; this is not any old fight. This is a big deal. I’ll be announced next week, and all the details will be announced at that time.

“Yes,” Arum said when asked if Crawford’s fight will be on pay-per-view.

Crawford will get the last laugh at his critics and Spence if he can get the Pacquiao fight next. As Arum says, this would be a “MAJOR” fight for Crawford if he were to face the former eight-division world champion Pacquiao.

The former three-division world champion Crawford has only been chasing the fight against the Filipino star Pacquiao for 10 years now, and he’s getting up there in age at 33.

Many boxing fans believe that Pacquiao has been stringing Crawford along without any serious intention of fighting him.

Image: Bob Arum to announce Terence Crawford's next fight next week, says it's a "Major fight" on PPV

It’s thought that Pacquiao will take an easy fight next against former four-division world champion Mikey Garcia, who has been pushing hard for a fight against him for a long time.

That would an easy fight for Pacquiao, as Mikey doesn’t have the size or the right game to excel at 147.

There will be many disappointed boxing fans if Arum’s “Major” announcement for Crawford’s next fight turns out to be someone like Josesito Lopez or Jessie Vargas.

Josesito, 36, is a fighter that Crawford has been rumored to be fighting next, which has led to him being ridiculed by boxing fans on social media.