By Sean Jones: Promoter Bob Arum says there’s a possibility that WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford could face the winner of this Saturday’s fight between light welterweight champions Jose Ramirez and Josh Taylor.
Crawford vs. the winner of Saturday’s 140-lb unification match would potentially occur if the Taylor-Ramirez victor moved up to 147 to go after his WBO welterweight strap.
If not, the winner of the Ramirez vs. Raylor fight will likely face WBO mandatory Jake Catterall next, according to Arum.
Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) is already on record saying that he wants to hold onto the WBO title long enough to defend against Catterall, who has been waiting around for a world title shot for a long time. That match would likely take place in the UK, obviously.
Things not looking good for Crawford
Having failed to put together a fight between ‘Bud’ Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) and Manny Pacquiao recently, things are starting to look bleak for the 33-year-old Nebraska native.
Arum might have to trot out another old-timer for Bud Crawford to fight if he fails to get him the big fight that he’s sitting idle waiting for. Crawford has already beaten the badly over-the-hill Amir Khan and Kell Brook recently.
He defeated Egidijus Kavaliauskas, who is a complete unknown to the casual boxing fans in between those mismatches.
Crawford wants a big fight, but he’s shown zero interest in facing his two highest-ranked contenders with the World Boxing Organization in #1 Vergil Ortiz Jr and #2, Shawn Porter.
“He was going to fight Manny Pacquiao in Abu Dhabi, but that didn’t come off,” said Bob Arum to Boxing Social on Terence Crawford. “So we’re looking around for a big fight for him with spectators sometime in the fall of this year.”
Terence has options
With Arum saying he wants to put together a big fight for Crawford next, these are the only fighters that you can consider fitting the description:
- Danny Garcia
- Keith Thurman
- Mikey Garcia
- Jaron Ennis
- Conor Benn
- Vergil Ortiz Jr
- Shawn Porter
Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman are both on the downsides of their careers, and it’s unclear whether Arum could get either of them to fight Crawford. If Arum isn’t willing to give them decent money, they’re going to laugh him out of the room if he tries offering them $1 million for a Crawford fight.
He probably can’t afford either of those guys, given that Crawford isn’t a pay-per-view attraction. That’s the whole problem. To bring in money for a Crawford fight, it would come down to fighting in front of a large crowd, and that could be not easy to do in his home state of Nebraska.
It’s doubtful that Mikey Garcia or Conor Benn would fight Crawford because they would likely lose badly in one-sided fights. Ennis is too young to be considered a “Big fight”, and he’s probably beat Crawford, so he’s not going to get the fight.
If Crawford had no interest in facing Shawn Porter, he’ll surely won’t want anything to do with Ennis.
Arum needs to find someone quick for Crawford beore he burns through the entire year without fighting.
The legendary promoter isn’t saying who he’s looking at to match against Crawford, as there are only a small handful of fighters at 47 that one can consider popular.
Crawford has been out of the ring for six months since his last fight against Kell Brook in November of last year. If what Arum says is true about Crawford not fighting until the fall, it would mean that he’ll only be fighting once in 2021. While Crawford thinks he’s coming out ahead by waiting for one big fight, he may end up losing if that fight isn’t a huge one.
Terence not busy enough
He’s missing out on a couple of paydays by failing to fight three times a year. However, whether ESPN would have three dates for Crawford to fight in 2021 is unknown. Maybe fighting once is as good as it gets for Crawford this year? If that’s his reality, it isn’t very reassuring.
It wouldn’t be if Crawford was a bigger draw and could get any big name that he wanted to for his next match, but he’s NOT a draw. He’s got that southpaw, switch-hitting, counter-punching fighting style that makes him avoided. Crawford checks all the boxes of being a type of fighter that other promoters don’t want to match against their guys.
That’s obviously one of the things that have held him back all these years. Being a counter puncher is bad enough, but when you add Crawford’s southpaw, switch-hitting, and highly mobile style to that, it’s like a witch’s brew. It’s a major negative.
On top of that, Crawford’s personality doesn’t lend itself to selling fights. He’s the opposite of a Jake Paul type of fighter that builds interest in his fights with his social media presence and excellent sound bites.
That’s obviously not a good deal for the earning power of the 33-year-old Crawford, who doesn’t have a lot of time left in his career before the younger lions catch up to him.
Former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter mentioned last week that he’s giving up on trying to set up a fight with Crawford because he’d failed to get any interest from his promoters. Porter would have been an ideal opponent for Crawford to fight.
Crawford has already ruled out a fight against his #1 WBO contender Vergil Ortiz Jr, and as I mentioned already, he also showed no interest in facing #2 WBO Porter.
Teofimo Lopez won’t get Ramirez-Taylor winner
Interestingly, Arum has already ruled out three-belt lightweight champion Teofimo ‘Takeover’ Lopez as an option to face the winner of the Ramirez vs. Taylor fight.
Despite Teofimo talking for months about his desire to move up to 140 to fight the winner of Saturday’s clash, Arum says it’s not happening.
“Teofimo is a terrific fighter and he’s had nothing but success,” said Arum when asked about Teofimo possibly facing the winner of the Ramirez vs. Taylor fight.
“If he wins his fight with [George] Kambosos, and we get through the [Jack] Catterall fight, it might be a really attractive fight for the winner to fight Teofimo.”
Arum wants Teofimo to stay at 135 and take on the winner of the May 29th fight between WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney and Jorge Linares.
If Teofimo doesn’t sulk and refuse to do what Arum is asking him to, he’ll have a chance to become the undisputed lightweight champion in the real sense rather than giving himself that status.
