Is Top Rank setting Crawford up for failure?

TR setting up TC for failure?! Are you kidding me?! Arum has been like a real, overprotective grandpa to TC. HBO Nelson wanted TC to fight Matthysse. Bob said no. Nelson had no choice but to stomach making Postol vs Matthysse, two foreign fighters with meager fanbases. Then Nelson wanted Pac vs TC. Bob said no again and thought TC was not ready yet. What a joke!

Usually fighters keep moving up in weight until they are no longer effective or competitive. Then they can't move back down.

I personally think it is a racial issue. Loma receives way more promotion than Crawford. Lomo has been with Crawford for over 4 years. Crawford for well under 1 year. Crawford is about to fight the guy who defeated PAC an all time great. Get real...

Hahah so much this. Bradley a feather-fisted dude who NEVER would have gotten a tenth of the wealth he has today if not for Top Rank. Bradley is likely worth close to 15 million dollars easily. And now has a cushy six-figure job as a commentator. lol set up for failure. hahahahahBradley made over 20 million off the pacquiao and marquez fights alone and that doesnt include the provo, rios, vargas, chaves, casamayor fights. He made close to 30 million with Top Rank alone

Bob has proven to be an expert at building a fighter. IMO he made several moves which I think really hurt Crawford's value/worth: 1. The Postol fight should've been in Nebraska on regular TV instead of Vegas. 2 The Postol fight definitely should not have been Crawford's debut fight on PPV. 3. Crawford should've gotten the Manny fight instead of Horn. 4. The fight should've been his PPV debut. 5. The Horn fight should be on regular ESPN, not PPV.Postol already said he wouldnt defend his title vs Crawford in Nebraska and it was on ppv because HBO only had two dates for Crawford and he wanted to fight 3 times that year so Arum lost money on the Postol fight by giving him a ppv so that he could get three fights in. The Horn fight won't be on ppv if Manny isn't on the card and Freddie Roach and Michael Koncz have already said on more than one occasion that they will never fight Crawford.

1. The Postol fight should've been in Nebraska on regular TV instead of Vegas. Nobody wanted that fight on PPV, including Bob. Everyone knew the PPV would flop. And yes, it did damage Crawford's career. But what choice did Bob have? HBO was refusing to buy the fight. 3. Crawford should've gotten the Manny fight instead of Horn. Manny turned down the Crawford fight.

Truthfully, he is a lawyer. I think he could care less about any other color than green$$$$ Fixed that for you. On topic; in a few weeks, Horn will be being called a hypejob and a jumped up schoolteacher by many of the same accts bigging him up now and then will promptly be forgotten and 'nuff said. Imo, the only way this is a competitive fight is a) if Crawford emulates LL and disrespects himself, his opponent and the sport by not taking the fight seriously. Or b) if Crawford makes a conscious decision to fight recklessly as a marketing ploy. This fight will look like alot like Gatti vs Mayweather. Maybe will last a little longer as Bud usually assesses his opponent for a couple of rounds before lighting them up.

Not likely. People want to blame promoters for the success of a fighter which is a very small percentage of it. Personality goes a long way to making you a star especially in this era. It's why you see the youngin's making more of an effort to be in front of the camera. Example, Garcia. Danny has the personality of a stone, his father makes up for it. Broner built a career on personality. Hell even Thurman and his lisp are making an effort. You can be a half decent boxer with a great personality and be a star, even with a shhh promoter.

LoL.........no. Old man Pac is on his way out so Crawford will most likely be the future of Top Rank.

Hahah so much this. Bradley a feather-fisted dude who NEVER would have gotten a tenth of the wealth he has today if not for Top Rank. Bradley is likely worth close to 15 million dollars easily. And now has a cushy six-figure job as a commentator. lol set up for failure. hahahahah Bradley made $1.3 mil for the Alexander fight before he signed with TR. He also could've signed with Floyd. You never know where his career would be had he done that. In fairness, Bob overpaid him for the Casamayor and 1st Manny fight and he took the payday and rightfully so.

All of these points are risks the promoter has to take! You do realize that, right? Crawford gets paid regardless if Arum makes any money. Who was willing to put up the money demanded by both fighters (Postol and Crawford) for it to be on regular television? The fight was likely brought to Vegas, because a Vegas location paid guaranteed upfront money to bring the fight there. Im sure if Arum thought he could have made more money in Nebraska than Vegas, he would have. Moreover, he was already a sellout star in Omaha, Vegas is the boxing mecca of the world. Why not try to sell him there as a star in what was by purist standards, a great fight with Postol and him.. Usually those type of fights don't get made because each guy demands too much money, and doesn't want to risk their brand by taking an L.. Arum has been in this business for like 5-decades, I'm sure he is the best there is at maximizing revenue, and profit. What if Manny didn't want to fight Crawford, and opted for Horn? These are all very petty points of contention. Crawford is LITERALLY one of only a handful of fighters from America blessed to be afforded the situation he is in. Of course he's the one putting in the handwork in the gym, and putting his body and health on the line come fight night, but if it wasn't for Arum, Crawford wouldn't have been fighting for million dollar purses against Hank Lundy's, and Felix Diaz's of the boxing world. Of course I am aware. I posted Bob could take a short term loss and make it up the next fight to ensure maximum amount of viewers. I am sure Nebraska offered money as well since all of Crawford's fights are packed and profitable. The optics for Postol/Crawford were bad and the viewership incredibly low because it was on PPV. Long term that didn't seem IMO to be about maximizing Crawford's career but keeping his value low. My 1st sentence in my initial post in this thread credited Bob with building careers. Use financial pressure, positive or negative, to make the fight happened as has been done. Bob hasn't been successful by not using underhanded tactics when needed. Again, blessed is relative. We are talking about something else. That was my point about Michael Jordan. yeah, he got rich, but he also got exploited by someone who got far richer. If Crawford wasn't blessed with talent and worked hard he wouldn't be getting those paydays. With all due respect to Bob and the work he has done to elevate Crawford-I think Dibella, Floyd, GBP, Schaeffer, Hearn or K2 would be getting Crafword million dollar paydays as well.

Makes sense - Top Rank signs black fighters just to ruin their careers, everyone knows that... I think many people complained about promotion of Lomachenko vs Rigondeaux too. There's a reason why Floyd left Top Rank. He saw how Arum wouldn't commit to him and promote him into getting big fights. Arum was more into promoting the latino fighters like DLH, Cotto and Margarito. If Arum knew Floyd would have blew up the way he did after leaving him, Arum would have asked for millions instead of the 750k buy out.

Smh.... must be why Bradley had like 10 consecutive million plus paydays and is now a full-time TR commentator, because TR set him up to fail? Crawford is now a p4p top 3 boxer, getting ready to make a few million on a PPV, I don’t hear Crawford saying TR has done him wrong. My post was sarcastic, for those who didn't notice.

You can argue over simple mistakes that have been made by Top Rank, but how one can say Arum is trying to "sabotage" or "set him up for failure" is amazing. Crawford is one of a handful of fighters who demands seven figure paydays. And he is only a star in his home town. Arum has made Crawford a multimillionaire (or at least he should be unless he spends like crazy) and has put him in the position to make the next five generations or his family to live off trust funds if he manages his money right. That means his kids, grandkids, etc. will never have to work a normal 9-5, and can pursue their own business and leisure interests. I'm getting a little too deep, but you get the point. Arum plucked Crawford out from Nebraska, believed in him, most likely signed a contract that allowed him to have all his training expenses paid,and a living stipend, so he could focus fully on his career. Crawford has been one of the most gifted and blessed fighters for "low risk, high reward" fights of his generation. Sure, Arum wants to make money off Crawford, he's not altruistic or anything, but if Arum makes money so does Crawford. Making someone a millionaire is always good-unless they should've been a multi, multi millionaire. I guess it's cool Jordan is a billionaire, until you realize Phil Knight is a billionaire 25 time over. get my point? I can't deny that Arum has made Crawford more recognizable, has helped him monetize his god given talent, and has helped him get out of poverty. In that sense he has helped his career, no question. From a boxing perspective, there are moves he made that don't look to me like he is positioning Crawford as his top dawg. If he doesn't, then Crawford, as I pointed out earlier, could fins himself in the same position Cotto did relative to Manny. I don't think that is in his best interest.

Agree on 1. BUT 2. Wasn't the Postol fight a PPV fight cuz of budgetary reasons with HBO like other fights have been? 3. How the eff does Bob MAKE Manny take that fight. From most accounts I heard that was a Manny problem more than a Bob problem. 4. Well yea IF the fight could've been made. Although I have less problem with it being 1st, 2nd or 3rd cuz I don't see a problem with trying out PPV or making big fights that happen to have to be on PPV to be made like I believe Bud vs Postol was one of. 5. I imagine it will be if Manny isn't in. I assume thats why nothing is official yet. Manny on the undercard = PPV, Manny not on the card = ESPN. I'm critical of Arum myself & I think he definitely favors certain guys, which promoter doesn't, but I don't see anything particularly out of line with how things are going with Crawford. If anything I think it just seemed to take a long time to get Crawford on this road to bigger success in boxing that I believe he coulda started sooner & been further along the path of now. 2. Yes, but IMO Bob could've made the short term investment in Nebraska and regular TV, took a small loss but maximized viewership for Crawford, then made up for it had he made the Manny/Crawford PPV next. 3. Fair point. Obviously either through financial incentives or financial penalties-which ever method gives us the outcome we want. 4. I think you want to maximize the PPV main event appearance of boxers that fans see as the best in the business but maybe have not crossed over to the casual fan. I think putting Crawford's PPV debut against Postol, in vegas undermined Crawford's true value. Put that fight in nebraska with a loud crowd (even if it is PPV) and it changes the optics for the viewer. Hot cheering crowd is much better than a passive, luke warm crowd that was hotter for the semi main. 5. I guess so. However, if you have the deal from ESPN, allot resources accordingly. Bob is steering his top draw away from Crawford and toward another fighter. That to me makes it clear he is hurting Crawford's overall value. Now maybe Manny isn't as gung ho about Crawford as he is Loma. respect your point but IMO the optics look incredibly bad.TR is steering the #2 WBO ww away from the WBO ww champ and toward a CW fight at a lower weight with a possible LW champ (assuming he beat Beltran which we all think is a formality).

Makes sense - Top Rank signs black fighters just to ruin their careers, everyone knows that... I think many people complained about promotion of Lomachenko vs Rigondeaux too. Smh.... must be why Bradley had like 10 consecutive million plus paydays and is now a full-time TR commentator, because TR set him up to fail? Crawford is now a p4p top 3 boxer, getting ready to make a few million on a PPV, I don’t hear Crawford saying TR has done him wrong.

Regarding those points, I think it's a bit more complicated: 1-2: Postol fight was made on PPV because HBO wasn't willing to pay enough money to make it on regular TV. It was pretty much situation where it was either made on PPV(which allowed certain pay-day for both Postol and Crawford to accept the fight for), or the fight wouldn't have happend instead. I think it was great support from Top Rank to make it, as they didn't make much money on that show at all. 3-4: I think everyone expected Pacquiao to beat Horn and Top Rank probably figured that having Manny pull out great numbers of ESPN in spectacular win will make Crawford fight even bigger. I also believe that Crawford didn't want to move up just yet - at the time. 5: We'll see what happens with this fight, I think they will probably make it free ESPN. Solid response with fair points. Then Bob should've done what was necessary to make the fight in Nebraska on regular HBO. He would lose in the short term but make it up down the road. Not only didn't they make much money, they had a terrible TV atmosphere that likely deflates TV viewership for Crawford. IMO Top Rank should've been taking steps to maximize viewers. Not true. Crawford would obviously take a Manny fight over Indongo JWW unification. He took Indongo because he couldn't get the Manny fight. Crawford made the best of that situation. The way Bob is positioning Loma for a Manny fight is what he should have done for Crawford back then. This is the complaint Floyd had-you are making me wait because its in the best interest of the company. One of the reasons Mikey left as well. The reality is there can only be one "top dawg". Bob has shown he will put the interests of the top fighter over one of the other-see Manny/ Cotto as prime example.

Regarding those points, I think it's a bit more complicated: 1-2: Postol fight was made on PPV because HBO wasn't willing to pay enough money to make it on regular TV. It was pretty much situation where it was either made on PPV(which allowed certain pay-day for both Postol and Crawford to accept the fight for), or the fight wouldn't have happend instead. I think it was great support from Top Rank to make it, as they didn't make much money on that show at all. 3-4: I think everyone expected Pacquiao to beat Horn and Top Rank probably figured that having Manny pull out great numbers of ESPN in spectacular win will make Crawford fight even bigger. I also believe that Crawford didn't want to move up just yet - at the time. 5: We'll see what happens with this fight, I think they will probably make it free ESPN. Your response on 1-2, I don’t agree with, it was a blessing in disguise. I think that helped spawn the ESPN deal. Thank you HBO budget!

I think they want to make a double announcement of Crawford/Horn & Pacquaio/Alvarado. Pacquaio is being too indecisive and he's holding everything up. Crawford-Horn should have been announced a month back and on regular ESPN. I thought the promotion was whack for Lomachenko-Rigondeaux too. Remember there was no press conference but with it being on regular ESPN at least it had a chance of some TV ratings. Crawford-Horn (without Pacquaio) is destined for failure much like the Postol fight.

Failure? He was the first undisputed champion since Hopkins. After he whips Horn's ass he will be a title holder in a third weight class. He's not doing any worse than Haymon's top WWs. Don't play the race card either. Arum cares about one color...green! Whoever he can earn more money with is who he will spend more money to promote. That's just business. It's on Crawford to get the fans interested by putting on a great performance.