Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum has denied that pound for pound rated Terence Crawford wanted $7 million dollars to face fellow promotional stablemate and boxing star Manny Pacquiao to fight him this year.
Crawford and Pacquiao have been linked with a fight since last year and in many ways, a potential matchup could represent a changing of the guard-type fight between two of Top Rank’s most capable pugilists.
The young lion and old lion, as it were.
It seems a logically easy fight to make at some point this year when Crawford gets a brief jail stint out of the way at some point in 2017.
A report surfaced recently amid the usual boxing news and speculation online that Crawford wanted a big pay day for the fight, which the Omaha man denied:
Just to clear the air i “Terence Crawford ” never asked for 7mill to fight @mannypacquiao there was no conversation of me even fighting him
— Terence Crawford (@budcrawford402) January 7, 2017
Top Rank promoter Arum has backed up his man’s sentiments:
No truth that @BudCrawford402 demanded $7 million to fight @MannyPacquiaoTR. He is a consummate professional and always reasonable.
— Bob Arum (@BobArum) January 8, 2017
Crawford’s last fight in the ring came last month in December 2016, when he stopped John Molina in conclusive fashion inside the distance in his home State of Nebraska to take the 29 year old’s record to 30-0 (21KO).
Pacquiao’s last outing came back in November when he outpointed Jessie Vargas by unanimous decision in Las Vegas.
The victory took the 38 year old Filipino boxing icon and Senator’s record to 59-6-2 (38KO) in the squared circle.
Despite Crawford being a 140lbs world champion and Pacquiao usually operating at 147lbs these days, one would imagine it would not be that hard a fight to make given the size similarity and if anything, Crawford actually being bigger than Pacquiao despite ‘Pacman’ competing at a higher weight.
Perhaps ‘Bud’ will look at it as another opportunity to win a world title in a different weight class.