By Allan Fox: Eddie Hearn advises Terence Crawford to sign with PBC to get the one or two fights he wants to make big money.
Crawford’s career could come to a stretching halt now that he’s left Top Rank, and he’s in a situation where he can’t get the top fighters to face him.
For the kind of money that Crawford wants, he needs to be matched against the big names, but that doesn’t look like it will happen.
If PBC does sign the 34-year-old Crawford, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to get the fights that he wants against Errol Spence Jr or Keith Thurman.
PBC can’t force Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) or ‘One Time’ Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) to fight Crawford.
Can PBC deliver Spence or Thurman to Crawford?
It’s not worth it for Premier Boxing Champions to sign the soon-to-be 35-year-old Crawford because of his advanced age, what he would want to be paid, and his track record in past PPV events.
What happens if PBC signs Crawford for big bucks and Spence & Thurman refuse to fight him? PBC would be in the same situation Top Rank has been promoting Crawford.
They’d match him against regular contenders that the boxing world has no interest in seeing, and it wouldn’t be worth it.
Hearn says he doesn’t have the fights that WBO welterweight champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) would need for him to make the money that he’s asking for.
“It’s that there are so many limited fights for him for like the money he wants and the legacy he wants,” said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype when asked why it’s so hard to get Crawford fights.
“It really comes down to Errol Spence or maybe one or two others, and if you can’t deliver him those fights, what can you deliver him? Fights that might not appeal to the fans? Therefore, fights that don’t necessarily have a lot of value?” said Hearn about Crawford.
Hearn advises Crawford to sign with PBC
“So unless you can deliver him big fights, I’m not sure there’s a part for you in his career,” said Crawford. “But he’s a tremendous fighter, a pound-for-pound great fighter, and we’ll see what happens,” Hearn said of Crawford.
“Sometimes people make it to where you have to be with a certain promoter to get those fights,” said Hearn when asked why Crawford can’t get the fights he needs for his career.
“But I think that’s a problem in boxing in general, but I think unless he signs with PBC [Premier Boxing Champions], I actually don’t think he will get those fights. Maybe that’s the route that he has to take.”
It might not help for Crawford to sign with PBC, though, because the money he would be asking for to fight Spence or Thurman wouldn’t be there.
PBC isn’t going to take a significant risk by setting up fights between Crawford and Spence if they’re worried about losing money.
“No, because Conor Benn ultimately has still got probably a year to go before he’s fighting those elite guys,” said Hearn. “He can get in mandatory positions,” Hearn said when asked if he’ll have similar problems getting unbeaten welterweight contender Conor Benn fights as Top Rank has had with getting Crawford big matches.
“I think that as well that people still believe that Conor Benn is beatable, whereas they don’t necessarily think Terence Crawford is beatable yet. It’s even harder to get those fights.
“So, I think Conor Benn is in a great position, he’s a huge draw, but he’s still got two or three fights before he’s at that level,” said Hearn.