Bob Arum has no regrets over not promoting Terence Crawford for the best part of his career.
Under Arum, Crawford became undisputed at 140 pounds. But he did not get the recognition many felt he deserved, given his resume’s lack of big names. A big part of that was Arum’s failure to deliver the Errol Spence Jr. fight. Spence was with PBC, making it more difficult to make a deal since they prefer keeping their fights in-house.
After Crawford left Top Rank, he secured the Spence fight and made history. He stopped Spence to become the first undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era. After that, he has been linked with a fight against Canelo Alvarez in an attempt to become a three-weight undisputed champion. Arum has not been a part of that, but he has no regrets over how things turned out.
Bob Arum On Crawford
“No [regrets]. Because Terence Crawford is a great talent. We always said that. The question is can you match up his economic demands with his actual marketability, and we were not able to do that. We lost a lot of money promoting his fights. I wish him well. But I’m not prepared, and my company is not prepared, to take those risks because at least with Terence it never worked out economically, even though his performances were brilliant. They’re still brilliant,” Arum stated
Those comments do have some credence, as Crawford failed to deliver big PPV numbers before the Spence fight. The Spence-Crawford fight reportedly sold 700,000 PPVs and produced a gate of over $20 million. It was one of the highest-grossing boxing events in 2023; with a rematch possible, Crawford will likely get another sizeable purse since he won the first fight and became the A-side.
But since Crawford’s departure, Arum has invested his time with other fighters. He has Teofimo Lopez, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Shakur Stevenson as fighters who have already become world champions in their own right. If Arum can ensure they are marketed in the fright way, there is potential for some big fights. With the rise of Saudi Arabia in boxing, he was willing for his fighters to face Gervonta Davis in some mega fights.
Arum On Davis
“Tank Davis is an excellent fighter and a big attraction. So sure we’d like to match [Stevenson, Lomachenko, and Lopez] against Tank Davis and see how well they would do. I like our guys to win the fight … All three would beat Davis. I really believe that. The way it will probably happen, where everything is happening, is the Saudis.
“[They] might decide to do the fight, after Ramadan this summer and cut the checks to the fighters. And that ends any kind of discussion of who gets what percentages. The stuff about A-side and dictating terms, that’s total and complete nonsense. Once you settle on the money and work out the percentages, then everything else is easy,” Arum said
More must-reads: