By Edward Chaykovsky
WBO/WBC junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford (29-0, 20KOs) denies that he was ever offered a November fight with comebacking eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao.
According to a recent interview with Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, the main motivation for Manny Pacquiao's decision to select Jessie Vargas over Terence Crawford was the weight.
Arum says Pacquiao had concerns with making the 140 weight limit and elected to fight at 147-pounds against Vargas, who holds the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight championship.
Pacquiao retired back in April after winning a twelve round decision in his trilogy fight with Timothy Bradley. He returns against the 27-year-old Vargas on November 5th from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Because of Pacquiao's duties as a senator in the Philippines, the eight division champion would not have enough time to trim down to a fighting weight of 140, says Arum. The veteran promoter does not rule out the possibility of Pacquiao facing Crawford in the future.
“Actually, we didn’t have any long discussion last Tuesday finalizing the other details of his bout. Manny chose Jessie because he doesn’t like to go down to the junior welterweight,” Arum told The Manila Times.
“Our talks went smooth. Manny is very busy as a senator and he doesn’t have enough time to work very hard to trim his weight,” he added. “But I believe he can still be competitive in both weight class. Manny will train here in Manila after attending a press conference in the US in September.”
“Manny can fight anyone, but he chose Vargas because that’s what he wanted and that’s the best for him. He doesn’t want to go down at 140. Maybe someday he will face Crawford.”
But Crawford says there was never an offer to face Pacquiao at 140, 147 or any other weight.
"Team Crawford was never offered the Pacquiao fight at any weight class, for those people that said I was scared to go up in weight to fight him," Crawford stated.
