Arum Expects Better, Stronger Terence Crawford at Welterweight

By Keith Idec

Bob Arum already considers Terence Crawford to be one of the top two boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.

The Hall-of-Fame promoters ranks Crawford and another of his fighters, WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, in a class by themselves among active boxers. That said, Arum anticipates an even better Crawford now that the undefeated former lightweight and super lightweight champion has moved up to the welterweight division.

You wouldn’t know it based on Crawford’s three most recent fights – destructions of John Molina Jr., Felix Diaz and Julius Indongo – but Crawford was having extreme difficulty getting down to the 140-pound limit. Crawford, 30, recently relinquished all five of his super lightweight championships to move up seven pounds.

The Omaha, Nebraska, native has been installed as the WBO’s mandatory challenger for its welterweight champion, Australia’s Jeff Horn. Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) will face the winner of a December 13 bout between Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) and England’s Gary Corcoran (17-1, 7 KOs) in Brisbane, Australia, Horn’s hometown.

“I know that he was struggling to make 140,” Arum told BoxingScene.com. “He had really a big problem making it for the last fight with Indongo [on August 19], although it didn’t look like that in the ring. But I know that there was a question up until the actual weigh-in whether he would make weight. And he still fought the way that he did. He’s an incredible talent.”

Arum hopes to eventually match Crawford against unbeaten IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) in what Arum considers the best welterweight fight that can be made. Regardless, he thinks the 5-feet-8 Crawford can perform even better now that he won’t struggle as much to make weight as a 147-pounder.

“I really believe that,” Arum said. “Trust me, he had to struggle. When he went from 135 to 140, it was easy. Then, as you get older, it’s tougher and tougher to shed those pounds. So I think he’ll be much stronger and certainly much happier at 147.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.