Eddie Hearn has the intent to attract promotional free agent Terence Crawford to his Matchroom Boxing banner. 

Crawford’s contract with Top Rank expired following the WBO welterweight champion’s 10th round TKO win against Shawn Porter in November. Immediately after the fight, the Nebraska native said he was moving on from the promotional outfit, and in January, he further punctuated that statement and sued Top Rank for breach of contract and claimed racial bias.

The English executive Hearn has since expressed his interest to sign Crawford in an interview with the MMA Hour when he was asked if he’d be making a pitch to recruit Crawford. 

“Yes, because he’s a pound-for-pound top fighter. It goes back to the value of a fighter,” said Hearn. “Yes, I’ve had some chats with his representatives. The problem is what can we deliver for him in that weight class?

“It’s a weight class historically dominated by PBC. So it’s one thing in getting Terence Crawford and paying him great money, but the other one is what fight are you going to give him that is actually going to deliver for DAZN.

“We don’t have access to a lot of those welterweights that would deliver value, Errol Spence, the greatest example. Again, it goes back to how much money is Terence Crawford going to generate?

“He’s an amazing fighter, but I just feel that perhaps promotionally, [Top Rank] haven’t done as good a job on Terence Crawford to make him the draw that he should be.

“I’m interested because he’s a great fighter, but I think we would struggle to deliver the numbers that he would want unless he were sensible.”

Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) earned a guaranteed purse upward of $6 million for the Porter fight. A career-defining fight continued to escape the three-division champion Crawford throughout his career until he most recently beat Porter. 

Previous to Porter, Crawford handled the likes of Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Jeff Horn, Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and Jose Benavidez Jr. in the welterweight division. 

The most viable opponent Hearn can offer to Crawford is the still-green Conor Benn, but the promoter would not be inclined to put his budding star behind the eight ball so early in his career. 

Much like Hearn alluded, the marquee matchups for Crawford can be had with Premier Boxing Champions and a stable of fighters that include Spence, Yordenis Ugas, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, and Adrien Broner, among others. 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.