Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he views Errol Spence Jr as a “Big favorite’ to defeat Manny Pacquiao on August 21 in their fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The legendary promoter Arum isn’t counting out Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs), but he feels that IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) is the guy that will be the likely winner.
Spence, 31, is 11 years younger than the 42-year-old former eight-division world champion Pacquiao, and he’s more active, having fought last December.
Arum tried to make Pacquiao-Crawford
Bob Arum recently tried to put a fight together between Pacquiao and WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford to stage it in Abu Dhabi.
Ultimately the deal fell through, and Arum says he was hesitant to take the fight to the United States.
He didn’t want to take the risk. Arum said recently that he’d lost enough money on Crawford’s fights to build a house in Beverly Hills, California. You have to wonder if Arum’s past problems with Crawford losing money made him less willing to take a chance on moving his fight with Pacquiao to the U.S.
Unfortunately for Crawford, this may have been his last chance to fight Pacquiao, as the Filipino star is expected to retire after he faces Spence on August 21, particularly if he loses.
“Good, we tried to do Pacquiao vs. Crawford in Abu Dhabi because the money is huge for that fight,” said Bob Arum to ESNEWS in racing to the news of the Pacquiao vs. Errol Spence Jr fight.
“Then people will say, ‘Why didn’t you try and do the Pacquiao and Crawford fight in the United States?’ Because as a business person, I thought it was too risky.”
It’s unclear what the risk would be for Arum to stage the Pacquiao vs. Crawford fight in the U.S. It’s certainly a fight that would have sold many tickets in Texas, but maybe not.
With the situation with the crowds due to the pandemic, likely, Arum didn’t wnt to risk booking a large venue and not selling it out. Pacquiao vs. Crawford might not sell out a large venue in Las Vegas.
With Spence, he’s popular in Vegas, so it was a no-brainer for PBC to set up a deal with Pacquiao for that city.
“Hopefully, they come out OK with Pacquiao and Crawford, but it’s risking a lot of money to do it, but that’s up to them,” said Arum.
It would be fun to be a fly on the wall to see Arum’s creation if the Pacquiao vs. Spence fight sells out the venue in Las Vegas and brings in over one million pay-per-view buys.
You got to imagine Arum will be green with envy at that point, knowing that he could have had Crawford be the one that was Pacquiao’s next dance partner if he’d been willing to take a business risk of potentially losing money.
“I would never count out Manny Pacquiao, but you have to make Spence a big favorite,” said Arum.
