Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he lost money on ALL of Terence Crawford’s fights, and he’s NOT a PPV draw.
The 34-year-old WBO welterweight champion Crawford’s contract with Arum’s Top Rank company expired with his fight last month against Shawn Porter on November 20th.
With Crawford now a free agent, we’ll see if he is signed by one of the significant promotional companies.
The only company that makes sense for Crawford to sign with is PPC because they can potentially set up fights between him and Errol Spence Jr., Yordenis Ugas, and Keith Thurman.
Given Crawford’s track record, PBC would be taking a risk if they signed him to a long-term contract. It might be better if they signed a fight-by-fight deal.
Arum: Crawford can’t draw on PPV
“Terence Crawford is one of the best fighters in the world today, and he’s tremendously skilled,” said Bob Arum to talksport. “Unfortunately, he hasn’t been shown to be a fighter that is a draw on pay-per-view for whatever reason.
Bob freely admits that Crawford is a tremendous talent, but his ability inside the ring hasn’t translated to being a draw that fans want to see.
What’s unclear is why Arum kept re-signing Crawford each time his contracts would expire.
If he were losing money all these years, the logical thing would have been for Arum to cast the Omaha, Nebraska native adrift and let someone else lose money on him.
Arum says that the unbeaten former three-division world champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) insists he should be paid like a star, but his inability to bring in PPV buys has been an ongoing problem.
For years, Arum has gushed about how talented Crawford is, but his praise hasn’t led to boxing fans wanting to pay to see him fight on PPV.
“So, we’ve put him in the best fights that we can, and unfortunately, we’ve lost money on every fight.
“He [Crawford] keeps insisting, and I understand his point of view, ‘I’m the best, I should get paid like the best,'” said Arum.
Crawford’s future uncertain
“So if someone is willing to come and put up with the money Crawford is demanding, he should do a fight with another promoter if he’s going to make more money,” said Arum. “We’re really at the limit of what we can pay him.
“Maybe somebody will pay him more and will be able to make a profit, and obviously it’s a business, and so be it,” said Arum.
Yeah, maybe a company is willing to put money into Crawford, hoping they’ll hit a gusher on the motherload.
You can imagine the kind of money a promoter can make off Crawford if they’re able to put him in with the right guys that the boxing public is interested in paying to see.
If Crawford can’t get fights against Spence and Thurman, he should consider moving up to 154 because there’s no one else at 147 or 140 that is popular enough for him to fight on PPV.
Yordenis Ugas isn’t a big enough name for a promoter to put a fight together on PPV between him and Crawford. There are only two worthwhile fights for Crawford at 147 in Spence and Thurman.
Once he exhausts those matches, he either needs to move up in weight or retire. If Crawford stays at 147, he’s not going to be able to bring in PPV buys because there’s no one for him to fight.
Options for Crawford at 154 & 160
Jermell Charlo
Brian Castano
Erickson Lubin
Tim Tszyu
Israil Madrimov
Demetrius Andrade
Gennadiy Golovkin
Jermall Charlo
Chris Eubank Jr
Ryota Murata
Bakhram Murtazaliev
Jaime Munguia
Erislandy Lara
Zhanibek Alimkhanuly
Crawford needs to become the villain. He needs to be Bud full time. He needs to continuously call out the very best and question their manhood. We want the big fights. Crawford should fight Thurman before all of his value is gone. (Thurman is barely hanging on after losing to an old and battle weakened Pacquiao). Thurman will lose again and I think he knows it
He wants another big pay day, and off into the sunset after losing badly to Crawford. (He better be careful in his tune up). Then fight Spence, giving Spence more time to heal. Not sure who will win that one. Spence is not the same and Porter exposed Crawford. Crawford is very good but definitely beatable. The old Spence and the constant pressure every round is hard to stand up to. Really wondered why Spence did not K.O. Garcia. (Made him look suspect) unless he wanted the work. That fight looked like he was working the heavy bag that had on gloves but didn’t use them at all.
Bob Arum is a Certified liar. You don’t make as many fights as he has with Crawford to lose money. It is a business but if anyone is losing money it’s Crawford, not Arum or the business. He’s another Don King all they care about is themselves.
He stagnated welterweight division, nobody wants to pay to see him defend wbo against porter, who is more of a reporter than boxer now.
I disagree me and many other will pay to Crawford-porter or Crawford- whoever. Crawford fighting anybody is better then some of these wack movies and songs I hear. But yet the artist or actors/actresses are getting paid very well.
They don’t want to get knocked out, so they avoid him. Period. Pretending like he is just pushing away fans is lame. It’s 100% bad promo when you have knocked everyone out for 4yrs straight, but can’t get “big fights”.
Why would you keep promoting and paying someone who you can’t turn a profit on. Complete BS. Arum’s just pissed Crawford called him out after the last fight of the contract. Arum is a cutthroat business man that’s not into charity work
Bob arum has the contractual agreements with his fighters that are the most restrictive, abusive and neglectful in the business by far, he makes Don King look like a good guy. Just shamefully the way fighters have been treated around Bob. Any time he is involved there’s loss. Look at Crawford or Deontay Wilder in this shambles of outright criminal robbery of Deontay Wilders legacy and so much damn money it’s unimaginable.
How could one promoter be wrong about not being able to give Crawford the money and respect her has earned. Promoters should get off their seat, and (box) fight for their race horse, enough said
Seems like Crawford and Deontay Wilder have a special something that the fight executives are adverse too. They oppress and attack Deontay Wilder and Crawford. While nurturing their privileged few as in fury, canelo and Anthony Joshua.
He doesn’t “need” to retire or move up and face bigger guys. I honestly don’t think he’s big enough to move up again… He should sit the throne and demolish every challenger they throw at him.
Absolutely correct
My thoughts too. Just dominate your weight class.
They matched him poorly and promoted him poorly as well. Crawford if advertised right along with him being the best of the best he could of made a fortune like mayweather made!!
Our prayers are with Crawford, may God bless him with a miracle and break the chains that have been repressing the natural unfolding of his career potential.
I thought t.c. should of left arum long time ago . the way he talks about him . It’s up to the promoter to make sure that he is doing his job as a team player, not to just reach out for money.
If they lost money on Crawford it’s because of poor promotion and management.