I find it difficult to sympathise with Crawford.

[champion4ever]

Exactly, I understand that he will have loyalty towards Arum who’s guided his career thus far, but there are far better options at PBC and he must’ve been aware of that when he re-signed.

No doubt! I believe his contract is up in 2020. So let's see will he sign with the PBC or re-up with Top Rank. If he does resign with Top Rank then he is a damn fool!

[ShaneMosleySr]

It’s not about numbers to me and I think a Spence-Crawford would do very well.

I think if there’s a decisive winner, that fighter is going to be considered the best fighter P4P.

It would be a bigger win than anything Lomachenko has done and since the Canelo-GGG fights are controversial, it becomes a bigger win than Golovkin, no matter how it goes.

Why don’t they want that fight then? I’m just so disappointed in this generation of boxing because these guys don’t feel an urgency to take that throne. It’s insane to me.

It’s not though...

Whilst he’s the most talented fighter, he’s nowhere near the draw someone like Pacquiao is.

I mean Crawford only done 150k buys last time out, even Spence has done better numbers than that.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

No doubt! I believe his contract is up in 2020. So let's see will he sign with the PBC or re-up with Top Rank. If he does resign with Top Rank then he is a damn fool!

Even if he just remained a free agent for a few fights, whilst maintaining a working relationship with Arum. Haymon knows he holds all the cards at 147, so the big fights are going to have to happen on Fox/Sho IMO, unless they become big enough for networks to collaborate which seems unlikely at this point.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

It’s not about numbers to me and I think a Spence-Crawford would do very well.

I think if there’s a decisive winner, that fighter is going to be considered the best fighter P4P.

It would be a bigger win than anything Lomachenko has done and since the Canelo-GGG fights are controversial, it becomes a bigger win than Golovkin, no matter how it goes.

Why don’t they want that fight then? I’m just so disappointed in this generation of boxing because these guys don’t feel an urgency to take that throne. It’s insane to me.

Personally, there’s no fight in boxing I’d like to see more...

It’d be huge to most of us on here as we’re die hard boxing fans but in a broader context it’s not a fight that’s going to generate the kind of money to force promoters, networks to collaborate.

For this fight to become realistic Crawford is going to have to “cross the street” or sadly he’ll continue to be frozen out.

[champion4ever]

Even if he just remained a free agent for a few fights, whilst maintaining a working relationship with Arum. Haymon knows he holds all the cards at 147, so the big fights are going to have to happen on Fox/Sho IMO, unless they become big enough for networks to collaborate which seems unlikely at this point.

So true; Moreover if he really wants that Erroll Spence fight and the chance of becoming the undisputed champion of the world in his second consecutive weight class, then what better way for him to secure that other than fighting on the PBC?

[taino78]

Bob Arum usually like his own shows. Theres never enough money. Back in the day Don king, Butch Lewis and Murad Muhammed made the matches boxing fans wanted to see.

[KTFOKING]

I find it hard being sympathetic towards Crawford as well.....But for other reasons. Like Arum said, why would Crawford be frustrated when he is making great money fight in and fight out? Dude made like 5-6M against Amir f'n Khan. He will make some good money against Mean Machine as well. If he's fine with how his career is going, and by all means he is, then that's good enough for me.

Hell of a fighter making top notch money. Good for him.

And he will still end up getting the Spence fight next year. So he pretty much gets to fight inferior competition for great money until getting THE fight that matters.

[Heavyhands420]

FTR, I think Bud is a tremendously talented fighter and I actually consider him the #2 P4P fighter in the sport today

Nice man. I have him ranked #2 as well. Whos your number one then?

[_original_]

Crawford isn't dumb, he took the Top Rank route because he knew he'd be paid big for easy fights. It was a smart business move but extremely frustrating from a fan's standpoint.

[spenz]

I think Crawford's team overestimated Bob Arum's promotional powers because of his reputation. Bob was able to convince them that with him and ESPN's so called megaphone effect is more than enough to tip the balance in their favor.

What they did not expect is Pacquiao's gravity, Bob thought Manny was all done, old, has been and just a fight away from being destroyed, and since Bob was not successful in passing the torch of Manny to his stable no matter how much he tried. Pacquiao effectively sealed and hit the nail in the coffin for Crawford's welterweight fate.

With the Re-emergence of Pacquiao. Haymon was able to create a Pacquiao Tournament inside his stable that will keep everyone busy for years to come. Best can already now fight the best inside the PBC stable because there is something far bigger to look forward to.

So Crawford's only choice right now is to finish his contract and sign immediately to PBC afterwards. The bad news is that, Time already took away years of his fighting prime. Still, there's a good news left, which is, he's still getting paid well while waiting.