Crawford’s real problem with Arum.

Bud has been the WBO welterweight champion since 2018. Since that time he’s been able to get easy mandatory fights and fight an average of once per year. Why? Well, we know Arum has major pull with the WBO going back to Pacquiao. A fight would be rumored then suddenly they would be made a contender according to the WBO. Towards the end of Bud’s time with Arum he had no problem saying he’s losing money on the guy. A recent Yahoo report said Arum, Top Rank, and ESPN have lost over $20 million since 2018 on Crawford. The final straw was the Porter mandatory. I have no doubts if Arum wanted to he could have gotten around it and had the WBO not force a mandatory or a purse bid for Shawn. But Arum was done losing money on Bud and knew he wasn’t resigning anyway so he had no reason to protect him. Now that he’s essentially a free agent he has no pull with any org and is realizing he has no clear path to get the fights he may want now since he’s not a money fighter. Only way he gets in line for a Spence fight is to bend the knee to Haymon and probably have to take a tougher fight first while Spence/Ugas plays out. He had no problems while Arum was paying him more than he was worth all those years but now that reality is setting he’s seeing his actual position in the game. This whole lawsuit against Arum is just him deflecting blame for his lack of ambition all these years.

Comments (10)

El_Mero

Same situation if he moves up. Diff in moving up tho is theres going to be an undisputed champ there real soon. Him being wbo '47 champ, he can press for immediate shot at whoever it is( my money is on Castaño). And he wont back away. Matter of fact, 'Mell has proven to be the only brother who doesnt have any issue fighting whoever. I could see him welcoming a Bud fight, even moreso cause hes a texas boy and would do something his fellow statesmen (spence) refuses to do.

4y ago

siablo14

Blame def does lay with Crawf, BUT a promoters job is to do just that, PROMOTE. the pandemic didnt help at all. Bud is a talented multi weight champ. Its a shame those in and around his weight class dont want to fight him and have put up excuses a/o crazy monetary demands to not fight him. Bob jas worked with lesser personalities and promoted them well. In the end, I feel Bud will move up if these sorry fcuks who call themselves contenders or champs refuse to step in the ring with the 34 year old champ, Spence "Mr. STRAP SEASON" ESPECIALLY. Same situation if he moves up.

4y ago

SplitSecond

Crawford’s problem is very simple. It’s always been the PBC. That’s his obstacle. Fuk boys will yell “Why didn’t he join the PBC doe?!” and in the next breath act like they didn’t freeze him and just about everyone out. It’s very simple. If he got Thurman when Thurman was a champ like he wanted, or Porter when Porter had a belt, or Danny GARSH, or Mikey ‘I wont work with Bobo’, or you just know Gibbons the shill would whisper sweet nothings to Pacquiao to keep it in-house. these are the guys we know were approached for the fight. These fights, taken earlier change Crawfords career drastically. But instead they were locked away for the alcoholic one once every other year to give us a dull ass “boxing-lesson” as a PPV debut with a guy coming straight from 135 and a bar brawl with what he deemed an in-shape street fighter he’d KO.

4y ago

Boxing_fan1981

All I have to say is that Crawford re-signed with Arum when the whole boxing community was pleading with him not to. Exactly. That’s what makes all this so stupid. How many times did he resign? If you felt discriminated against, why didn’t you just leave?

4y ago

maguirre

You can make a thread just as equal or with more validity: Arum's real problem with Crawford

4y ago

El_Mero

4y ago

QballLobo

Jesus Bob Arum is the promoter. Crawford is the fighter. Crawford has yet to even attempt self promotion. Bob was losing money? What the **** is his job? It's ****ing stupid to protect Bob ain't never done **** all for the fans Arum, but what's even dumber is all you **** giving Bud **** for Bob not doing his job very well. Makes a ton of sense And since I'm bashing Bob must mean I'm a Crawford fan, even though not one of you hatefilled ****s have ever had to deal with me on any subject to do with Crawford. Hmm. Maybe I legit think yer ****ing dumb? While I agree Arum didn’t do a great job with him this isn’t his first rodeo. He’s been doing this since the Ali days. He helped bring up legit mainstream stars like Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao, and Mayweather Jr. All just as talented or more than Bud and Arum did ok with them. I think it’s a deal where Arum didn’t see him getting traction and put minimal resources into him when he wasn’t seeing a return on investment.

4y ago

Outwest_Exp_355

I’m so sick of this story already.

4y ago

buddyr

All I have to say is that Crawford re-signed with Arum when the whole boxing community was pleading with him not to.

4y ago

PBR_Streetgang

it's hard for me to say what or who was the impetus, but I have a feeling all parties are to blame (Arum, ESPN, HBO, Crawford, etc.) for the current situation. I thought Bud was on a decent run before and after the Gamboa fight but the decision to put the Postol fight as PPV was a mistake. Up to that point, Postol was a relatively unknown other than defeating Mathysse. He then went on a run of of mixed quality opposition and then another PPV against Khan. I got the impression Arum or ESPN marketed Bud in the proper way. Bud didn't market himself either. It was all very blah and without a good marketing pitch other than "he's really good". Call me crazy but I would have marketed him as a menacing nemesis, a destroyer, a miniature Sonny Liston. His surly disposition could have played into that.

4y ago