Boxing
Bob Arum on Terence Crawford asking for more money for empty arena fight: 'Next man up!'
Terence Crawford recently suggested that he would need to be paid more in order to fight in an empty arena. His promoter, Bob Arum, heard Crawford’s suggestion loud and clear and had a simple response.
“Next man up,” Arum said on Boxing with Chris Mannix. “Nobody in this situation is indispensable.”
To be clear, Arum didn’t take exception with Crawford saying that he needed more money. As a matter of fact, Arum can understand where the WBO welterweight champion is coming from. But he’s not going to waste time and money trying to force a boxer to compete. Instead, he’ll look for other options when the time comes.
“If a fighter said ‘no, I don’t want to fight without an audience’ or you have to pay me more, that’s okay,” he said. “I respect that. Next man up…Again, nobody can force anybody to fight and nobody can force a promoter to use them. I’m going to have to use those fighters who have managers who realize the situation they are in.”
Arum is hoping to see boxing back in business in June. He’s been critical of the UFC moving forward with their UFC 249 pay-per-view event on May 9 and refuses to stage a fight until safety for those involved is guaranteed above and beyond the recommendations.
Once boxing is back in business, the Top Rank CEO is “optimistic” that he’ll be able to work with other promoters to put together the fights that fans want to see. If that's the case, boxing could return to the glory days of the 1980s when boxing events were must-see television.
"I look forward – maybe I’m an optimist – to more cross-promotions like (Wilder-Fury),” Arum said. “I think if we do that and we start churning out Crawford vs. (Errol) Spence and a lot of fights that can be made that the public wants to see, I think boxing will revive and be back, almost, to where it was in the 1980s with the Four Kings (Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns)."
