By Keneth Friedman: Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford could return to the ring this year … read more
By Barry Holbrook: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has done a lot of talking about … read more
By Kenneth Friedman: Bob Arum believes he has a way of putting together the long-anticipated … read more
By Jeff Aronow: Bob Arum of Top Rank is saying that they’re looking to put … read more
By Chris Williams: Bob Arum says he’s working on trying to put together a fight … read more
By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says promoter Bob Arum wants to make to make Manny Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) vs. Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) next year. Arum hasn’t given up on the idea of making the Pacquiao-Crawford fight, even though Pacquiao looked bad in losing his last fight to Jeff Horn by a 12 round unanimous decision earlier this year on July 2 in Brisbane, Australia.
By Chris Williams: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford is denying that he asked for $7 million to fight Manny Pacquiao for his April 23 fight. Their promoter Bob Arum also says that Crawford asked him for $7M for the fight against the 38-year-old Pacquiao.
Trainer Freddie Roach was the one who said that Crawford was asking for $7 million. Roach said it to the boxing media at least twice. The question is why would Roach say that unless it was told him by someone who knows? I smell something fishy. Roach is usually dependable with his news tips. Why would he make up stuff about Crawford asking for $7 million and being turned down?
By Chris Williams: Jeff Mayweather doesn’t believe that Manny Pacquiao really wants to fight Terence Crawford at all. He feels this way because of the recent $20 million request that Pacquiao made from his promotional company Top Rank for him to fight the unbeaten Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs).
Jeff says that a fight between Pacquiao and Crawford isn’t worth $20 million due to Crawford not having accomplished enough at this point in his career for Pacquiao to be asking for big money fighting him. Jeff is right about Crawford not having done a whole lot with his career.
By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says that he was told a week ago by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum that Terence Crawford was the possible opponent for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight. However, Roach then said he heard that the 29-year-old Crawford’s asking price was $7 million for the Pacquiao fight.
Roach thinks that it might have been too much, because Arum is now talking about wanting to match Pacquiao against unbeaten #2 WBO Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) in April.
By Chris Williams: After ignoring Terence Crawford for well over a year despite their Top Rank promoter Bob Arum badly wanting the fight, 38-year-old Manny Pacquiao is finally willing to face the Omaha, Nebraska native, but for a high a price of $20 million guaranteed. That’s the amount that Pacquiao reportedly wants, and he wants the fight to take place in April.
The $20 million would be in addition to the pay-per-view upside that Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) could be getting for the fight. Now the question is will Arum be willing to give Pacquiao that kind of cash for the fight with Crawford? Pacquiao isn’t a draw like he used to be on PPV. You can blame a lot of that with the very, very stale match-making from Top Rank for Pacquiao in his last two fights.