Pacquiao is still winning
Pacquiao is coming off of a big win over Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, who is arguably more popular than Crawford. If Pacquiao takes a fight with Crawford, it would be a step down for him, and there’s no point.
The Top Rank promoter Arum admits that a fight between Crawford and Pacquiao wouldn’t be “competitive” and yet he doesn’t seem entirely happy that the Filipino star isn’t choosing to take the fight. Pacquiao would likely take the fight with Crawford if Arum met his asking price.
For a Pacquiao to take a fight with Crawford, he would obviously want big money. It wouldn’t make sense for Manny to take the fight with Terence for anything less than $20 million. Just how much Arum would be willing to offer Pacquiao to fight Crawford is unclear. If it’s less than $20 million, then there could be a problem. Whatever Pacquiao gets, you can bet that Crawford would want similar money. Could the fight turn a profit if both guys are getting $20 million?
If Crawford was a popular fighter, then a fight between him and Pacquiao would make huge money like the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny fight. Crawford isn’t popular like Mayweather, so a fight between him and Pacquiao probably won’t bring in the big bucks.
If Arum believes the WBA welterweight champion Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) wouldn’t have a chance against Crawford, then why on earth would he want him to take that fight? Arum would be better off persuading Crawford to face Shawn Porter or better yet, move up to 154 or 160 to go after Jermell Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez.
Jason Slack Is a Senior Sports Writer for the Sports Core Network and also part of the Sports Core Report.
