Arum War Of Words About Terence Crawford Escalates

So, it doesn’t look like Top Rank Boxing promoter Bob Arum and WBO World Welterweight belt holder Terence Crawford will be spending much time together over the holidays. This, after the 88 year old boss of Crawford’s fights (for now) gave incendiary comments about losing money on Crawford’s bouts and not being interested in dealing with him any longer.

In the aftermath of Crawford’s 4th round TKO of Kell Brook on November 14th, Arum spoke with boxing insider Dan Rafael for a Boxingscene.com item released Monday And, he didn’t hold back on the reported “tension” over Crawford not having gotten a bigger named fight over the last two years,

Crawford: I Done Called Out The Top Welterweights; No Need To Do It No More https://t.co/vKYSIG4VKP pic.twitter.com/uld14Q7r8c

— BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) November 23, 2020

“I don’t give a sh-t,” Arum told the site. “I don’t care because what (the Crawford camp) did was reprehensible. The lawyer sent a letter to us. OK, that’s fine. That’s what lawyers do. But you don’t release it to the press. All of this should have been behind closed doors like what men do. I’m not going to take this sh-t. I’m just not going to do it, because the truth is I’ve lost money with this guy.” 

Several media outlets were leaked the info about the letter and Crawford’s displeasure with his deal just days before the Brook defense.

Arum continued, lamenting the situation,

“It will be (another Crawford promotion) another hit on my net worth,” Arum said. “I’m being serious. I turned the whole project of Crawford over to (Top Rank president and Arum stepson) Todd (duBoef). I washed my hands of it. I’m too emotional about it. There was this last kerfuffle with the Brook fight when he didn’t sign the contracts so we couldn’t promote on (the) Lomachenko-Lopez (telecast). I have long since departed working with Crawford.” 

Arum is making reference Crawford not agreeing to the terms of his November 14th fight until the night of the Lopez-Loma October 17th battle. Thus, hampering promotional buildup.

Of course, there was no live gate for either title fight in the Las Vegas “bubble.” And both bouts were on regular pay cable ESPN and not a PPV option. So, it’s not like there was that much more to “sell” to the public to make Top Rank money.

Still, the 33 year old Crawford is unbeaten, has defended his WBO belt now four times and is seeking a bigger name like Errol Spence or Manny Pacquiao in 2021.

Arum reportedly added an incentive to Crawford’s deal late last year that if he wasn’t offered a Unification 147 lb. title fight with Spence by the end of 2020, that he would receive $1 million extra.

Looks like Crawford will be getting that bonus.

For his part, Arum revealed post-fight on November 14th, that Top Rank had a tentative agreement, including a huge pay day for both Crawford and Pacquiao, for them to fight in the Middle East in either November or December of this year. However, the health ministry of the country where the fight was going to be (believed to be Qatar), told Arum that there would likely be no fans/live gate. And, it scuttled the short term plan.

Now, we wait to see if Crawford or his team respond to Arum blasting them publicly and look to end their relationship sooner than the reported October 2021 contract end date.