Terence Crawford sounded confident last Saturday night after winning over Kell Brook that he’ll be facing Manny Pacquiao next. It might be a deluded pipedream on Crawford’s part, as Pacquiao’s team are reportedly interested in facing Mikey Garcia next.
WBO welterweight champion Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) wasted his time with the spotlight on him night by repeatedly saying he wanted to face the 41-year-old Pacquiao next rather than a more realistic fight against Errol Spence Jr or Shawn Porter.
Those are the fighters that Crawford should have been calling out rather than Pacquiao, who is busy with his senatorial job in the Philippines. Like all politicians, Manny (62-7-2, 39 KOs) has got his hands full right now with the pandemic going on.
Crawford needs a realistic option
A better choice for Crawford that is attenable next year would be Yordenis Ugas, Ray Robinson, #1 Shawn Porter, or #2 Vergil Ortiz Jr. Those guys might not give Crawford the big payday that he would get against Pacquiao. Still, those are fights that can be made.
Top Rank is in a position where they need to get the 33-year-old Crawford a name opponent for his next fight. If they can’t get him someone like Spence, Pacquiao, or Porter by 2021, they may lose him when his contract expires in October of next year.
“I knew I had him hurt real bad because he didn’t know where he was after the fight,” said Crawford about him knowing that he’d hurt Brook in the fourth round.
“It’s just an instinct. You know when you’ve got a guy really hurt. I want Pacquiao. I want to revisit that fight. That’s a fight that should have happened right now. But then the pandemic happened, and they weren’t going to allow fans in the Middle East.
Everything was 95 percent done. We had the venue, and the money was almost there. That was the only thing that we were waiting on. That’s what messed up the fight.
Manny is a true champion; he never shied away from any challenge. That’s just Manny Pacquiao being a great Manny Pacquiao that he is. Fighting these young lions and beating two of them and Keith Thurman,” said Crawford.
The grass isn’t greener on the other side
Right now, Crawford sounds too needy, and that’s not a good place to be when you’re trying to get a fight against Pacquiao. It would be better for Crawford to lower his sights and aim towards fighters that Top Rank would have a good shot at agreeing to the fight.
Crawford is better off staying with Top Rank, as he receives a lot of visibility with his fights on ESPN. If he leaves them to fight on Showtime or Fox with PBC, he probably still won’t get the fights he wants.
Crawford wants Spence, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, and Pacquiao. But those guys are popular, and they call their own shots in picking out opponents. If they’re not showing interest in fighting Crawford now, they sure as heck won’t be agreeing to fight him if he inks with PBC.