Legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is currently in quarantine due to the Covid-19 crisis and to keep in touch with the boxing world he has given phone interviews with various boxing media from his home.
Arum was recently a guest on The Ak & Barak Show podcast on DAZN and gave his insights on the state of boxing and the hosts asked Arum about some welterweight fantasy match-ups between fighters he promoted past and present.
When the match between Oscar De La Hoya vs. Sugar Ray Leonard came up, Arum had no hesitation in giving his prediction and said it was “No contest, Leonard beats him [De La Hoya] easy.”
The second fantasy match up is one that has been talked about for some time and could actually take place after the pandemic and that’s WBA welterweight champion Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao versus WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford.
Arum who is best known for promoting Filipino ring legend Manny Pacquiao during his peak as a pay-per-view attraction, is currently promoting undefeated American Terence Crawford and believes in their primes, his current top welterweight would beat his former top welterweight if they fought.
“When it comes to Pacquiao and Crawford, I think Crawford is an elite welterweight and has the skill set that trumps the skill set of Manny Pacquiao, so, I would go with Bud Crawford,” said Arum on The Ak & Barak Show. “But certainly in their prime, in Pacquiao’s prime, Crawford’s in his prime now that would have been an amazing fight to watch.
“Crawford in my opinion is more skilled than Juan Manuel Marquez and at best Manny and Marquez were even in their battles.”
Arum also said during the interview he thinks it would be harder to bring Pacquiao to the table for a Crawford fight because of his steep price tag of 20 to 25 million guaranteed money.
The hall of fame promoter has suggested in the past that he doesn’t believe the 41-year-old Pacquiao can still draw enough to warrant the high pay demands he once secured in his prime when he was a top PPV attraction selling over 1 million buys per fight.
