After Terence “Bud” Crawford successfully defended his WBO welterweight title on November 14th against Kell Brook, fans continued to call for him to fight fellow undefeated American champion Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. in a unification bout next.
Crawford and Arum said their next target would be a unification with Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao who dethroned Keith “One Time” Thurman in July 2019 for the WBA welterweight belt.
Pacquiao who recently turned 42-years-old on December 17th is currently working as a Senator in the Philippines and hasn’t fought in over a year.
Arum and Crawford revealed in their post fight interviews that the original opponent for Crawford was Pacquiao but due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that fight was sidelined and Kell Brook filled the void.
Many boxing fans found it hard to believe that Pacquiao would be willing to fight Crawford after he left Top Rank and signed with rival promotional outfit Premier Boxing Champions and Al Haymon.
When Pacquiao was with Top Rank he never showed any interest in fighting his stablemate Crawford when the fight would have been easiest to make, instead he left and fought Lucas Matthysse, Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman.
YouTube channel Barbershop Conversations had an interview with Top Rank’s Bob Arum and asked the hall of fame promoter if Terence Crawford wasn’t going to fight Errol Spence Jr. next who is the next opponent and Arum’s response had the host laughing in disbelief.
“Pacquiao,” Arum told Barbershop Conversations. “The only way we could do that fight (Pacquiao vs. Crawford) if it was in the Middle East and a country in the Mid East was ready to put up the money. What I’m representing is Qatar agreed to put up the money for the fight to be held in November – but that was based on a gate and people coming in to help tourism. When the Minister of Health in Qatar said no go, that it’s not going to open up, the coronavirus would still be with us, they then postponed. They are talking now about coming back this spring before or after Ramadan and if the Minister of Health approves and they agree to do it on the same terms, I’ll speak to Manny and I’ll speak to Bud Crawford and get it done.”
In a recent interview Manny Pacquiao said he would like to fight twice in 2021 and has no urge of retiring any time soon, Crawford is just one of the names team Pacquiao has mentioned as possible opponents along with UFC star Conor McGregor, WBC/IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. and Mikey Garcia.
