Comments Thread For: Crawford Laments Lost Opportunity After Horn Upsets Pacquiao

[Snoop Frog]

Pac Man will win the rematch, then Bob Arum will feed Pac to Crawford for a passing of the torch destruction.

[Boxing Logic]

Terrence leave arum asap. Led you on for years promising to make the manny fight when he knows deep down he had no intention of doing that. Should move to haymons stable at least he'll have a ton of good match ups there. If he's not going to fight pac or even Bradley what's the point in staying with bob?

He had every intention of making the fight. It's just his matchmakers told him Pacquiao would still beat Crawford last year, so he wanted to wait until it was a guarantee that Crawford would win, otherwise he would lose his next star to an old Pacquiao and the money making ability would not get passed on to his next generation the way he planned it to.

I think Pacquiao's part time training also complicated things. Roach probably didn't want that fight until the right time of year when Pacquiao would be able to take a break from his Senator duties and train full time. Additionally Pacquiao wanted his normal 20 mil plus, and Crawford is not from Australia so where was Bob going to get that money for a Pacquiao-Crawford fight when Crawford has refused to fight the big names at 147 so far and thus has no fanbase or star power to bring to a pay-per-view?

The way it's supposed to work is the young guy also brings something to the pay-per-view so it's worth the old guy's while to fight a young lion despite him being way past his prime. Pacquiao earned the Oscar fight that made him a superstar by being willing to fight Erik Morales three times and go to war, fight Barrera and Marquez twice each and go to war both times.

Meanwhile with Terence, he refused to go up to 147 and fight guys of that caliber to build a fanbase with great 50-50 fights like Pacquiao did, and then at 140, almost every time Bob set him up with a great opportunity to build a fanbase even against B-level guys, like the Postol unification, Terence fought the most conservative fights I've ever seen anyone fight and refused to get in exchanges and create action to bring fans to his side the way Pacquiao did coming up and GGG has done recently as well. It's no surprise those guys gained huge followings and Terence has not.

Terence wanted to wait around, fight a bunch of B-level guys, refuse to even exchange with the B-level guys, and then just walk into a Pacquiao fight for no other reason than Arum is his promoter and he felt entitled. Nah man when you're not willing to do any of the things other boxers have done to actually create a fanbase, then it's really hard for you to get pay-per-view opponents. Pay-per-views require fans who want to buy your fights. Why should Pacquiao fight Crawford for short money at the end of his career? It's Crawford's job to make 50-50 fights, and make entertaining fights, to gain a big enough following where the financials make sense for a Pacquiao-Crawford PPV.

But Crawford never did that, and I think that's another reason the Pacquiao-Crawford fight did not come off last year. Crawford's inability to build a fanbase as quickly as Arum hoped set the schedule back a year or two, and Pacquiao lost in the meantime. You can hardly blame Arum for that. If Crawford had fought Thurman, Brook, and Spence two or three times each by now like he should have done, like Pacquiao did with Morales, Marquez, and Barrera, then he would have been a much bigger name by now, and Pacquiao-Crawford would have been viable as a big HBO PPV last year and Bob would have made it. Beating those guys also would have convinced Bob's matchmakers that Crawford wasn't at risk of losing to Pacquiao if they made the fight that soon.

Instead, Crawford's only wins of note are against a way smaller Gamboa, Lamont Peterson's leftovers Felix Diaz, and the Andrzej Fonfara of the junior welterweight division Victor Postol (just with even worse power and chin), and he has the fanbase you would expect someone with that level of opposition to have. And in every fight but the Gamboa fight he has created no action at all, just tons of movement and potshotting. Maybe that works to your advantage if you are trying to create a fanbase of haters who want to see you lose and you go full heel, but if you are actually trying to make fans who like you, that's not going to do that.

Crawford has not turned full heel, so he's not making enough noise in that regard to attract legions of haters, but he's not making enough noise in terms of excitement in the ring, or at least high level of opposition, to bring in legions of fans, either. Some of the blame for that has to go on him.

[Drew Bundini Br]

CRAWFORD would totally flatten PAC. Arum knows better than to match them up.

[nycsmooth]

With how dominant Terrence has been looking lately it would have been a million-to-one shot he could have had an opportunity vs Pac... the same for Spence 4 Thurman pack will not fight anyone he feels can really dominate him and was he surprised with horn even though I felt Pac won 7- 5...

[UFC_Boxing]

He had every intention of making the fight. It's just his matchmakers told him Pacquiao would still beat Crawford last year, so he wanted to wait until it was a guarantee that Crawford would win, otherwise he would lose his next star to an old Pacquiao and the money making ability would not get passed on to his next generation the way he planned it to.

I think Pacquiao's part time training also complicated things. Roach probably didn't want that fight until the right time of year when Pacquiao would be able to take a break from his Senator duties and train full time. Additionally Pacquiao wanted his normal 20 mil plus, and Crawford is not from Australia so where was Bob going to get that money for a Pacquiao-Crawford fight when Crawford has refused to fight the big names at 147 so far and thus has no fanbase or star power to bring to a pay-per-view?

The way it's supposed to work is the young guy also brings something to the pay-per-view so it's worth the old guy's while to fight a young lion despite him being way past his prime. Pacquiao earned the Oscar fight that made him a superstar by being willing to fight Erik Morales three times and go to war, fight Barrera and Marquez twice each and go to war both times.

Meanwhile with Terence, he refused to go up to 147 and fight guys of that caliber to build a fanbase with great 50-50 fights like Pacquiao did, and then at 140, almost every time Bob set him up with a great opportunity to build a fanbase even against B-level guys, like the Postol unification, Terence fought the most conservative fights I've ever seen anyone fight and refused to get in exchanges and create action to bring fans to his side the way Pacquiao did coming up and GGG has done recently as well. It's no surprise those guys gained huge followings and Terence has not.

Terence wanted to wait around, fight a bunch of B-level guys, refuse to even exchange with the B-level guys, and then just walk into a Pacquiao fight for no other reason than Arum is his promoter and he felt entitled. Nah man when you're not willing to do any of the things other boxers have done to actually create a fanbase, then it's really hard for you to get pay-per-view opponents. Pay-per-views require fans who want to buy your fights. Why should Pacquiao fight Crawford for short money at the end of his career? It's Crawford's job to make 50-50 fights, and make entertaining fights, to gain a big enough following where the financials make sense for a Pacquiao-Crawford PPV.

But Crawford never did that, and I think that's another reason the Pacquiao-Crawford fight did not come off last year. Crawford's inability to build a fanbase as quickly as Arum hoped set the schedule back a year or two, and Pacquiao lost in the meantime. You can hardly blame Arum for that. If Crawford had fought Thurman, Brook, and Spence two or three times each by now like he should have done, like Pacquiao did with Morales, Marquez, and Barrera, then he would have been a much bigger name by now, and Pacquiao-Crawford would have been viable as a big HBO PPV last year and Bob would have made it. Beating those guys also would have convinced Bob's matchmakers that Crawford wasn't at risk of losing to Pacquiao if they made the fight that soon.

Instead, Crawford's only wins of note are against a way smaller Gamboa, Lamont Peterson's leftovers Felix Diaz, and the Andrzej Fonfara of the junior welterweight division Victor Postol (just with even worse power and chin), and he has the fanbase you would expect someone with that level of opposition to have. And in every fight but the Gamboa fight he has created no action at all, just tons of movement and potshotting. Maybe that works to your advantage if you are trying to create a fanbase of haters who want to see you lose and you go full heel, but if you are actually trying to make fans who like you, that's not going to do that.

Crawford has not turned full heel, so he's not making enough noise in that regard to attract legions of haters, but he's not making enough noise in terms of excitement in the ring, or at least high level of opposition, to bring in legions of fans, either. Some of the blame for that has to go on him.

Cmon man, do you even trust your own bull****?

Crawford took all the toughest challenges at 135-140 and won them easily, he got 5 stoppage in his last 6 fights. Hes now fighting Idongo for the first unification over a decade.

Its okay for Pac to avoid geting annhilated by him. Even a prime Pac would not stand a chance at 140

[Boxfan83]

This won't happen. Not while TR has a contract with ESPN. He should've left TR to get those bigger fights. It was clear he wouldn't get Pacquiao. Now he's going to be underpaid for the next few years. And will he be stuck defending at 140 until the Pacquiao messed is settled?

Do you really think Crawford isnt doing what he wants? Do you really think Thurman and Spence are big $$$ fights? If so you are delusional. Crawford has a chance at becoming a true UNDISPUTED champ, something that has been done VERY rare in boxing history and theres been even fewer adding the WBO title. Crawfords building his own brand. Crawford moves up as the Jr. Welterweight Undisputed champ, hes the A-side against Thurman and Spence or Horny.

[Sheldon312]

He has no one else to blame but himself. He should've went up to welterweight to prove that he really wanted to fight but yet he chose to stay at 140 (a **** division) and yet him and Loma are being praised as being great but they haven't fought anyone great. It pisses me off that, Felix, Pernell, Oscar, Pac, and Floyd had to earn their status at a young age while Crawford and Loma don't have too. Boxing is dying.

[Bronx2245]

This won't happen. Not while TR has a contract with ESPN. He should've left TR to get those bigger fights. It was clear he wouldn't get Pacquiao. Now he's going to be underpaid for the next few years. And will he be stuck defending at 140 until the Pacquiao messed is settled?

Sad, but most likely true! However, Mikey is a free agent and has no obstacle to fighting Crawford on ESPN, other than Bob Arum!

[Sheldon312]

It's his fault. The cowardly divas like Ward and Floyd have set an awful example for the next generation of American boxers, making them think they deserve to have every single advantage otherwise they should decline the fight. This dude weighs 160 pounds in the ring, more than Pacquiao, and he's in his prime while Pacquiao is old, and yet he had the nerve to say he would only fight Pacquiao at 140 LOL. Which is ****** anyway because he is way bigger than Pacquiao, and Pacquiao would probably benefit from fighting at 140 instead of 147 anyway.

But these pampered American "stars" expect to get every single advantage, and everything their way, to the point where they just make dumb demands without even thinking. A real champion would have said "I want Pacquiao next, and I will knock him out at any weight he wants, anywhere he wants, any time he wants, because he's old and I'm bigger than him anyway." Instead Crawford made the ridiculous 140 demand and now he lost the biggest shortcut to stardom he would have ever had in his career.

Which also proves how spoiled these top American "stars" are that his plan all along seemed to be to cherry pick and wait until Pacquiao got old and then fight Pacquiao to take a shortcut to stardom, rather than fighting prime top fighters who are actually his size at 147 and earning his own stardom the way Pacquiao did when he fought Morales three times and Marquez twice (and Barrera) before ever getting a shot at a faded big name like Oscar.

Crawford wanted to skip straight to the faded big name to leech the star power away, without ever earning his own first. Except no wait he didn't even seem to want to do that, he seemed to want to wait until the faded big name faded even more, because if an undersized lightweight, slightly faded Gamboa can sweep the first four rounds against you and almost knock you out, then a faded Pacquiao at 140 or 147 is still a big problem for you. He was scared of that same style he apparently has trouble with that Gamboa had, just the much better more powerful version in Pacquiao, so fighting 37 year old Pacquiao wasn't good enough, he wanted to wait until the dude was 40 or some ****.

At least, that's what it looks like. Fans from the outside may never know what went down. But the 140 demand just seems extremely cowardly and unlike a real champion when you consider that Crawford weighs 160 in the ring and is much bigger than Pacquiao fighting at 140 than Pacquiao is fighting at 147!

I agree. This is why none of these fighter will probably go down as top ten all time greats.

[Bronx2245]

For those who think the Crawford fight didn't happen because of him or his own actions, then please remember this:

July 26, 2016:

Freddie Roach had an excellent vantage point as Terence Crawford easily out-pointed his man Viktor Postol this past weekend at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to unify the WBC and WBO junior welterweight belts. There is now talk of matching Crawford with Manny Pacquiao, who is scheduled to resume his career on November 5th. "It's a very tough match-up, Crawford showed that he can move for twelve rounds, he can run for twelve rounds. But y'know, in-between the running and so forth, when he does land punches he does land really powerful punches. He hurt my guy a lot. I know Postol's got a pretty good chin,"said the noted trainer on Monday morning from the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California. "So Crawford's a pretty good puncher, he hits hard and he moves very well and emulates (Floyd) Mayweather quite a bit, I think. I think he's like a young Mayweather, right now."

And with that said, Roach may not want that Crawford fight for 'the Pac Man' just yet. He admitted - "You know what, with Manny in the senate and I have to go to the Philippines and so forth to train him and with all the confusion going on - I don't think I'm going to accept that fight or want that fight right away. I mean give me one warm-up fight and give me a fight right after that and we can talk."

http://www.boxingscene.com/roach-adm...cquiao--107082