Arum On Terence Crawford Lawsuit- Racism Charges “Vile Indefensible”

The bad Blood between Top Rank Boxing promoter Bob Arum and WBO World Welterweight Champion Terence Crawford has spilled over into Las Vegas civil court. And now, the 90-year-old famed boxing matchmaker is firing back at his former fighter.

Arum released a statement to boxing Insider Dan Rafael on Wednesday night responding to Crawford 23-page racial bias lawsuit that he had filed earlier this week in Clark County Nevada.

⬇️ My latest for @WorldBoxingNews https://t.co/8LGNIPsnqf

— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) January 13, 2022

“Bud Crawford’s lawsuit against Top Rank is frivolous,” Arum said in a statement given to World Boxing News. “His vile accusations of racism are reckless and indefensible. He knows it, and his lawyer knows it. I have spent my entire working life as a champion of Black boxers, Latino boxers, and other boxers of color. I have no doubt the court will see Crawford’s case for the malicious extortion attempt that it is.” 

The suit, which was filed in Nevada because that’s where Top Rank is based, alleges that Arum breached the newly negotiated contract extension from 2018 with Crawford by not giving him a second fight worth over 4 million dollars in 2020. And, it further charges that Arum could not or would not make more lucrative fights, because he was racially biased against Crawford.

For their side, Crawford’s lawyers allege in the suit…..

“Top Rank has repeatedly breached its contracts with Crawford, and in fact defrauded him into entering agreements in the first place,” the suit said. “Even while Top Rank openly criticized Crawford, it pushed him into agreeing to fight Egidijus Kavaliauskas – not because that was best for Crawford’s career, but because Top Rank needed to fulfill its obligations to (broadcast partner) ESPN.

To induce Crawford to agree to the Kavaliauskas bout, Top Rank fraudulently promised to arrange for Crawford to fight Errol Spence Jr. despite knowing that Top Rank could never deliver the promised match.

“Top Rank also failed to deliver a promised second bout under the parties’ promotional rights agreement. Top Rank apparently had no qualms about lying to a Black fighter or failing to respect its contractual obligations to him, though it would never treat one of its white fighters with such blatant disrespect. “

As we wrote on Wednesday, it has been a very public, ugly war of words between the fighter and promoter due to him not being able to land a huge Pay-Per-View event fight against either Spence or Manny Pacquiao. This, as both of those Welterweight champs were under the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella.

Crawford did fight and stop Shawn Porter last November in the latest defense of his WBO title and in his final fight for Arum/Top Rank.

Crawford is now currently a promotional free agent, but it is believed that he may be looking at doing a short-term deal now with PBC to get in the mix to fight the winner of the Spence-Yordenis Ugas Unified Welterweight championship bout coming later this year. That would finally give Crawford the shot at being Undisputed at 147 lb.

Crawford could also move up and potentially fight the winner of the Jermell Charlo-Brian Castano Undisputed 154 lb. Championship coming in March. Charlo is one of the prized PPV caliber fighters for PBC and a challenge by Crawford while moving up in weight would be intriguing.

Still, all of that is hypothetical and assumes that PBC and Al Haymon won’t continue to “freeze out” Crawford for having not signed with them previously, when he did the Top Rank new deal three and half years ago.

A deal that Crawford obviously now regrets.