Terence Crawford and Manny Pacquiao in Bahrain, Bob Arum planning

By Tim Compton - 06/02/2020 - Comments

Top Rank boss Bob Arum is negotiating a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford for the Middle East in Bahrain. Arum is hoping the money come through to stage this exciting match-up, and says the talks are “serious.”

WBO welterweight champion Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) feels that Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) has been ducking him all these years. If Arum can finally get Crawford this fight, it would be a dream come true for Bud.

The fans are in disbelief right now, with Arum talking about the Crawford vs. Pacquiao fight being a possibility. People doubt that Arum will ever make this fight.

“We hope to get [Terence] Crawford and [Manny] Pacquiao in action this year through our friends at MTK,” said Arum to IFL TV on putting together a fight between these two champions.

Is it worth it for Pacquiao to fight Crawford? That’s a question that comes to mind when thinking about this match-up. Unless the money being offered to Pacquiao is out of this world good, he would be better off going in the direction of a fight with Mikey Garcia, Errol Spence, Danny Garcia, or even a rematch with Thurman.

It’s going to take a lot of money to get this fight done, as Pacquiao has a lot of other great matches in front of him. He doesn’t need to fight the crafty switch-hitting Crawford, who is a lousy style match-up for him. Pacquiao recently defeated Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman by a 12 round decision last July, and that was a big win.

Manny fought like he’d been drinking from The Fountain of Youth. Instead of the 41-year-old Pacquiao being the old guy, it was Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) who looked gold.

“Well, let’s see what happens. Everybody wants to do these events until the time comes to put up the money, but I think with Bahrain we have a good shot to get it done,” said Arum.

Bob didn’t say what kind of money that Pacquiao and Crawford might get by agreeing to fight in Bahrain. Would a $20 million guarantee purse for Pacquiao get him to agree to face Crawford? It could be.

Arum needs to realize that Crawford isn’t a star, and it’s going to require a win over an old lion like Pacquiao to take his career to the next level.  Historically, fighters often become stars after they beat a well-known old-timer. We saw that with Pacquiao becoming a star after he beat Oscar De La Hoya in 2008. Floyd Mayweather did the same thing in beating De La Hoya in 2007.

“We’re in serious talks with Bahrain, doing major fights there,” continued Arum on his vision of staging Pacquiao vs. Crawford in the Middle East.

Until Pacquiao or someone from his management team verifies that talks are underway for a fight with Crawford, it’s hard to believe that serious negotiations are taking place with Arum. Pacquiao has a lot of fighters from the Premier Boxing Champions stable for him to fight, and make decent money. Why would he want to fight Crawford and mess that all up?

 

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