Crawford-Brook contract talks underway

We may finally have a challenger for three-division champion Terence Crawford, and his name is a familiar one in former champion, Kell Brook.

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who promotes Brook speaking with the gang at IFL TV recently, confirmed that he was currently in talks with Top Rank for the former IBF welterweight champion Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) for a bout that will be slated to take place sometime around November 14 or 21.

“I had a couple of conversations with Bob [Arum] and [Top Rank VP of operations] Carl Moretti yesterday. And I feel that’s a big fight for UK TV, so we’re trying to help out and get that over the line,” Hearn told IFL TV. “I would love to see Kell get that fight. I think [Top Rank] had a conversation with Keith Thurman, and obviously they wanted too much money.

It’s difficult at the moment … Crawford wants a lot of money, and Kell wants a lot of money. He deserves it. We’re trying to make that fight happen to assist Top Rank in getting the numbers together.”

Crawford has been the name mentioned by fighters ranging from Gary Russell Jr. and Keith Thurman. The talks with a potential fight with Thurman fell by the wayside last week as he reportedly wanted 10 million dollars to face the undefeated welterweight from Omaha.

“Thurman’s people got in touch with me, but they’re out to lunch,” Arum told Keith Idec of BoxingScene.com last week about the money demands. “They have such crazy expectations that just don’t exist anymore. Their money demands are crazy. They said they were free agents, which I’m sure they are. But again, who’s gonna pay what they’re looking for?”

I got $80 right now to drop on the Thurman fight. I got $4.99 to drop on ESPN plus for the Brook fight.

— Pandemic Lefty (@lazylefty) August 18, 2020

That tweet is even funnier now as Disney/ESPN just starting in August is charging $5.99 now for the streaming service monthly as I found out on my recent bank statement. Feel free to send me four quarters (well eight to cover the shortage for us both).

Seriously, while the fight with Thurman isn’t happening, I remind everyone that at the end of the day if Crawford couldn’t take on Errol Spence that Plan B was always Kell Brook. That plan has been the deal since Arum stood next to me last May at the Ito-Herring weigh-in and explained as much.

I’ll hit Powerball twice before Spence, and Crawford get in the ring at this rate, so they have moved on to Brook.

It would be interesting to note the last line from Hearn saying, “Kell wants a lot of money. He deserves it”, as that was the snag in talks last September, which had Crawford taking on Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas last December instead. Crawford stopped  Kavaliauskas in the ninth round of that contest.

It’s merely the state of the boxing business, if not the world currently. If Crawford-Thurman could’ve been made for a realistic value, I believe it would happen. Since it can’t and won’t, we will wait and see once everything is ironed out for Brook-Crawford hopefully in November.