If Arum had allowed Pacquiao to fight Crawford…

[champion4ever]

You’re implying it was Arum that didn’t give it to us, but in my honest opinion I think that was PAC’s team not wanting to fight Bud. I’m sure Bud wanted that fight, and just as Arum was trying to turn Bradley into the next American superstar when he signed him in late 2011/early 2012, I’m sure he would’ve liked to turn Bud into a superstar but Bob couldn’t force one of his fighters (who had already done so much for him) to fight a red hot fighter with a killer’s mentality while Pacquiao is clearly on the way out (whether he looked good or not against fighters such as Broner and Matthysse).

Freddie himself was confident that they could beat Spence…not so much the much more obviously versatile Crawford.

That fight could’ve put Crawford over somewhere in 2017-2019 and turned him into a star much earlier. But who knows how things would’ve rippled.

Maybe we don’t get Canelo/Spence and Spence prices himself out? Maybe Crawford fights Jermell Charlo at 154 and does to him what he did to Spence? We never get the Canelo fight…or maybe we do. And by 2023-2024 he becomes undisputed at 140/147/154/168.

Who knows?

I sometimes go back and wonder for example how MUCH Margarito stopping Cotto had an effect on the welterweight division and the chess pieces in general.

If Cotto remains undefeated and decisions Margarito, we get De La Hoya/Cotto in December 08(Oscar had said that he had thought of making that fight). Oscar makes Cotto go to 154 but by now he’s past his best days, Cotto decisions him. Pacquiao hovers around 135-140 after that. The idea of cherry-picking a weak 147 pounder is not an option. Cotto goes back down to 147 and still has an “0”. Mosley is still formidable, Paul Williams is still out there, Margarito is trying to line himself up with a Cotto rematch after a fight of the year candidate, Andre Berto is still undefeated. We never get that clinically insane run that Pacquiao has. And maybe because of it, we never find out just how legendary Pacquiao becomes. He remains great as a legend in the sport but never morphs into the mainstream superstar he ended up becoming.

Both Team Pac and Bob Arum were complicit in protecting Pac from a beat down at the hands of Terence Crawford.
Bob even boasted himself that he kept Bud away from Pac because Manny couldn’t have won.

[champion4ever]

it'd happen in 2018 after TBud had his first fight at 147 ko'ing Horn

manny would be 39 at the time

TBud southpaw right check hook KO manny and FORCES him into retirement

they're both southpaw so TBud has an open lane for his 74" reach dominant hand power jab

Floyd's 72" reach jab gave manny fits. TBud's open lane jab would land more than Floyd's stick

a frustrated manny grows desperate lunging in eating counters for it until his chin fails him

I agree with everything you’ve said but your timeline is wrong. That hypothetical matchup would have taken place in 2017.

Remember that Bud had been calling out Pac since 2016. The same year he defeated Viktor Postol. Arum was floating the idea of Crawford fighting Pac to keep him from signing with the PBC

However, Team Pac opted to fight Jeff Horn next instead of Terence Crawford. In a fight in which Manny Pacquiao subsequently lost.

[NarcosMaidana]

Funny that the narrative now is that Bob is protecting Manny when before, it was Bob is milking Manny dry and doesn't care about him. "when Pacquiao leaves Arum and Top Rank, the truth will come out". Now, it's "Arum was protecting Manny because Arum cares about him".

Fight could of happened but TBud wanted the fight to be at 140.

[NarcosMaidana]

Promoter Bob Arum repeatedly stated that Terence Crawford was not a pay-per-view (PPV) draw and that Top Rank lost money on his fights, which was one of several factors that prevented a matchup with Manny Pacquiao during their time together.

• Pacquiao's age and demands: While Crawford was still with Top Rank, Pacquiao was an aging superstar with high financial demands. In 2017, Pacquiao's camp reportedly requested a $20 million guarantee to fight Crawford. Arum considered these financial demands a "non-starter" for a potential PPV.

• Financial risk for Arum: A fight between Crawford and Pacquiao would have required a large financial commitment. Since Arum claimed Crawford was not a major PPV draw, he would have been taking a significant risk by paying Pacquiao such a high sum to fight a less commercially popular opponent.

[NarcosMaidana]

• The Saudi Arabia deal: In 2021, a deal for a Pacquiao-Crawford fight in Abu Dhabi reportedly fell through. Arum claimed the necessary money from the site was never put up by the deadline, despite signed contracts.

[NarcosMaidana]

Bob Arum says Pacquiao has reached out for Crawford, but big fights won’t happen without fans

“Pacquiao and his people have reached out to me about the possibility of a Crawford fight. We were hopefully thinking about scheduling that fight outside of the United States. We’ll have to see. But it’s certainly a very interesting fight. Once this clears up, I think we have a way where it can happen.”

[NarcosMaidana]

“Both (Pacquiao and Crawford) had agreed and we had a signed agreement from this group in Abu Dhabi subject to the money getting put up by the Abu Dhabi government.”

With deadlines missed and no money coming through, the fight is off, Arum said.

[NarcosMaidana]

During an interview at the MGM Grand Convention Center, Crawford told reporters the fight was scrapped over restrictions for in-person attendance.

"We had the venue," Crawford said. "The money was almost there. It wasn't quite there. That was the only thing that we were waiting on. But that's what messed up the fight, was the fans."

[NarcosMaidana]

Terence Crawford reveals why he’s not pursuing Manny Pacquiao fight.

[The Big Dunn]

Crawford by late stoppage after winning every round .