A Star On Paper: Crawford’s Unfortunate Legacy
By Eddie Sanchez
Terence Crawford is one of the best boxers in the world, that much is clear. At 33 years of age, his professional resume includes a record of 37-0 with 28 KOs, world titles in three divisions, including undisputed status at Light-Welterweight (140 lbs).
For years he has sat in the the top-three of the P4P rankings, and depending on the source you use, is often ranked as high as number 1 or 2.
Coming off an electric victory over a former Welterweight champ, you would expect that the talk for him would solely be positive, but unfortunately for him, his promoter Bob Arum hung him out to dry and contributed to the growing narrative that Crawford can’t sell. How does the saying go again? Is this – if a tree falls when no one is around, does it still make a sound? Or is it – if an elite fighter isn’t marketable, does he still have a legacy?
Now I am no expert, but if the goal is to get the viewing public to buy-in on your fighter, it is probably not a great idea to publicly shame him for his lack of drawing power, where you then highlight the fact that he has cost you millions of dollars.
Dana White, the top-dog of the UFC took advantage of the moment to absolutely destroy the long-time Top Rank promoter, and quite-frankly, he was not wrong with his sentiments.
So what gives? Why is a guy as talented as Terence Crawford, who routinely knocks out his opposition, not worth a damn on television and in the live-gate?
With a quick look at his resume, you will see that his initial title reign in the Lightweight division includes men like Yuriorkis Gamboa and Ricky Burns; two talented fighters that offered decent exposure for the Omaha native. Not fighting Jorge Linares, the WBC champ at the time, was a missed opportunity, but forgivable considering boxing politics.
Crawford then ran-through the Light Welterweight division on his way to undisputed status. Unfortunately though, this is not the most marketable division in boxing. In fact, Crawford earned his first taste as a PPV headliner against Viktor Postol, but found his introduction to be a massive disappointment by only selling 50,000 buys. Although a financial disappointment, this reign solidified his status as an elite P4P fighter on his way to the Welterweight division.
The Welterweight division has always been the money division for the lower weights. There have been countless stars earn their stripes at this weight class and Bob Arum surely viewed Crawford as the next in line to earn a legacy in the ring on his way to financial dominance, but as we have learned, this is not the case.
So far, Terence Crawford’s Welterweight legacy includes victories over the following fighters:
Jeff Horn
Jose Benavidez Jr.
Amir Khan
Egidijus Kavaliauskas
Kell Brook
By no means has this been a murderer’s row of opponents. Jeff Horn was an undeserving paper champ who most viewed as a loser to Manny Pacquiao. There are also two relative unknowns to the casual fan, and two past-their-prime Brits that posed no threat according to the majority of members within the media. That outlook led to a second underwhelming PPV against Khan that sold to 150,000 homes.
The disappointment is compounded by the fact that this division is actually incredibly stacked, but each of the elite men fight under Al Haymon’s PBC banner, including Manny Pacquiao who was a long time Top Rank fighter.
It’s clear that the terrible decision which led to Jeff Horn stealing the title from Manny had huge ramifications for Terence Crawford. There is an alternate universe where Manny was rightfully awarded the victory and then stepped in the ring with Crawford, but unfortunately this is the universe we live in.
Given the understanding for how Crawford’s Welterweight career has gone thus far, supplemented by Arum’s recent comments, the hope is that Terence Crawford will eventually be able to take control of his promotional career.
Nailing down the specific details within fighter’s contracts with promoters is one of the toughest tasks to do. Combat sports contracts are very sealed compared to the other major American sports, but my understanding is that Crawford’s remaining deal is somewhere between two additional fights and/or ending in September, 2021. Assuming these details are true, we can reasonably expect the much anticipated Spence-Crawford fight to not happen until his contract with Top Rank is over.
Al Haymon sees the writing on the wall given Bob Arum’s recent comments and he would likely want to milk Spence’s title reign as long as possible to see if Crawford joining PBC is a legitimate option.
Spence has his return fight in a couple of weeks with Danny Garcia and also has guys like Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman in his promotional stable as options to buy time for Crawford to fulfill his contract. While this generic scenario would be disappointing for Crawford given his age, and financially devastating for Top Rank, it may turn out to be his best opportunity for Crawford to maximize his purse for that superfight.
If this is the plan he devises with his team, what are the reasonable expectations for how he can fulfill his contract with Top Rank? It has been thought that a future opponent for him will be the winner of the expected Light-Welterweight unification bout between Josh Taylor (WBA, IBF & The Ring) and Jose Ramirez (WBC & WBO), but given that Terence Crawford is more likely to leave once his contract ends, it’s fair to wonder if Bob Arum will act in good faith and risk a loss for his undefeated Light-Welterweight champion.
Additionally, given Teofimo Lopez’s rapid rise, he might steal this fight from Terence Crawford if he jumps to the 140 pound weight class and the winner agrees to stay for one more fight before moving onto the Welterweight division. This might be a risky move for Teofimo though, given his age, which would work in Terence’s favor. Plus, we still need the Taylor-Ramirez fight to happen before we can truly speculate on the possibility.
So once again, where does Terence go from here? His Welterweight career has been the epitome for boxing politics interfering with staging fulfilling fights all parties can enjoy, and not just the promoter.
After scanning Top Rank’s stable, the only present option that sticks out is Alexander Besputin (13-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC). Despite the fact that Besputin failed a drug test in his last fight, testing positive for the PED Ligandrol, he is still the only credible internal option in his current weight class.
Once that fight inevitably happens, we will be stuck with a mammoth of a conundrum. Terence Crawford will have one fight on his contract and will want the biggest possible name. Bob Arum might be willing to offer him his choice, on the condition that he re-ups his contract. That condition will be the difference between a wasted opportunity and a clean break-up.
It’s fascinating to see a boxer of Crawford’s caliber deal with the issues he is dealing with. If Bob Arum doesn’t act fast, he will lose the most accomplished fighter in his stable and Crawford will end his future fights by saying, “Thank you Al Haymon.”
