Top Rank Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum is always looking to produce the next mega-fight, letting the idea of two stars going at each other build and build (or marinate, as Arum might say). One massive clash of unbeaten stars Arum has an eye on for the coming future, in a year or so, is a welterweight showdown between Errol Spence and Terence Crawford.
Arum is hot on Crawford, an unbeaten master boxer who is set to invade the welterweight division in April, against WBO ruler Jeff Horn, and he informs RingTV.com how he plans to have a fight between the two classy boxers build into a genuinely big pay-per-view attraction.
“A fight, maybe a year from now, that everybody will want to see – it will be a big pay-per-view fight – is Terence and Spence,” Arum told The Bible of Boxing. “It’ll be bigger in a year. Would I like Terence to fight [Keith] Thurman? Yeah, sure. So we’ll see.”
There are a number of spicy, potential classics that can be made at welterweight right now, or in the coming months, and the thought of Crawford going in against any of the top 147 names really does get the excitement levels going – quite astonishingly considering the fact that Crawford, Ring Magazine’s No.2 ranked pound-for-pound fighter, has yet to even box above 140 pounds.
So far, reigning IBF welterweight king Spence looks to be the top dog at the weight; or at least second but only to the still inactive Thurman (who still needs an official opponent for his planned May ring return). Arum is right: Spence Vs. Crawford needs more time before it becomes really big; at least enough time to allow Crawford to win a belt at 147 (can Australia’s Horn put one huge spanner in the works by upsetting Crawford in New York in April?)
If Arum can work his magic, and if the two fighters continue to do so also, maybe, just maybe Crawford-Spence, or Spence-Crawford, depending on who the A-side will be if and when the fight takes place, will rank up there with the welterweight classics of years gone by.
But as much as this fight needs a little more time to build, let’s also hope Arum doesn’t let it marinate too long; with one of these special fighters suffering a loss (as unlikely as this may seem right now). Remember how Arum messed up in allowing that guaranteed blockbuster fight between Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez to slip away?
Heck, even Hall of Fame boxing promoters get it wrong on occasion.