Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is leading his company with two key fighters in the current era - Vasiliy Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) and Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs).
Lomachenko was in action last month, when he captured his third division world title with a tenth round TKO of Jorge Linares at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“The stars aligned,” Arum said to the Las Vegas Review Journal. “It’s one thing to have the best fighter in the world, but to have the two best fighters in the world is really a blessing.”
Arum has often compared Lomachenko to legendary heavyweight Muhammad Ali - and he also feels the talented Crawford is also on the level of Sugar Ray Leonard.
“He’s a throwback to Sugar Ray Leonard, that’s the fighter I compare him with,” Arum said. “Is he better than what Leonard was? That’s hard to say, but certainly he’s on that level. He’s just absolutely been spectacular.”
And Arum is equally as high on Crawford, who captured a world title at lightweight, unified the entire junior welterweight division and is now going for his third world title at 147-pounds.
On June 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Crawford will challenge Jeff Horn for the WBO welterweight title.
Crawford is not the biggest trash talker, but he backs up his talk in the ring with very dominant results.
“I want Crawford to be Crawford,” Arum said. “I don’t want him to be anything he’s not comfortable with. A lot of these guys for years tried to be Muhammad Ali out of the ring with their mouths, but there was only one Muhammad Ali.
“You gotta let these kids develop their own personality. Crawford is ready for the ride of his life, starting with the Horn fight because he’s becoming the poster boy of ESPN."