Bob Arum says Terence Crawford will return this fall, talks shortlist of opponents

Welterweight titleholder Terence Crawford has been out of action since last December, but his promoter Bob Arum is currently looking to have him back this fall when he hopes some fans will be allowed to attend live fights. Talking to ESPN about the options they’re currently weighing, Arum rattles off a new names in consideration as Crawford’s opponent.

“We’re going to have Terence fight in September, or October, period,” said Arum on Monday. “We’re looking to either match him with [Manny] Pacquiao, Kell Brook, [Yordenis] Ugas or [Shawn] Porter.”

A fight against Pacquiao is one that’s been discussed for a couple years now, although had Arum previously admitted that he stood in the way of that fight as he had too much genuine concern and admiration for Pacquiao to put him in such a tough fight at his age. Arum clearly has had a change of heart though, as he now fully supports a Pacquiao-Crawford fight. I’d hazard a guess that it may have something to do with Top Rank being desperate to find Crawford a marquee opponent, but now the finances of staging potential Pacquiao-Crawford fight comes into play.

Arum says the fight would need to be staged abroad in order to make it viable and also laments the problem of trying to make notable and cross-promotional fights when there’s no live gate revenue to count on.

“We talk to [PBC] all the time about the possibility of them using some of our fighters, us using some of their fighters,” said Arum, whose company co-promoted the Feb. 22 rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury with PBC. “The question is: How do you pay for it?”

This is obviously an issue for all promoters in this current environment, not just Top Rank, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of arrangements can be worked out, or if we’re just going to have to suffer through one mismatch after another just to say we have live sports again.