Since leaving Top Rank and signing with Al Haymon and a possible Adrien Broner fight on the horizon, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao has been more willing to clap back when fighters are talking down on him.
Recently, undefeated WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford said in his eyes Manny Pacquiao wasn’t a real champion because he holds the regular belt and Keith Thurman held the real WBA super title.
A reporter asked Pacquiao while promoting the ISPS Handa and Emmanuel & Jinkee Heart Foundation Inc. in Makati City, Philippines his opinion on Crawford.
Pacquiao responded with “He is just afraid (to fight me) and the promoters were preventing him from fighting me for a long time.”
It seems Pacquiao who is a ring legend and multiple weight division champion took offense to the comments Crawford made about him not being a real champion in the welterweight division after winning the WBA regular belt by stopping Lucas Matthysse in round 7.
Shortly after Pacquiao’s stinging comment the American champion responded back on Twitter to Pacquiao’s claims that he was avoiding him when he was with Top Rank:
@mannypacquiao you said I was scared of you? Stop it you and I both know that you didn’t want to fight me that’s why you fought Jeff Horn. I had to go behind you and clean up what you couldn’t do because you thought it was sweet and take the easy route you forgot
8:08 AM 20 Oct 2018
A Manny Pacquiao vs. Terence Crawford was one of the fights Bob Arum was pushing for when he had the Filipino Senator in his stable, but Pacquiao’s American trainer Freddie Roach wasn’t to keen on the match up stating Crawford would be a difficult match up.
The fight is likely never going to happen since both fighters are with different promotional outfits.
Crawford has slim pickings over at Top Rank, all the top welterweights are with Al Haymon including IBF champion Errol Spence who has been calling out Crawford for a title unification showdown and would be the most intriguing all American bout between two undefeated welterweights since the 1981 Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns super-fight.
Arum and Haymon will need to put their differences aside because boxing fans will not be satisfied seeing Crawford fight unless it’s with top ten welterweights and other world champions in the division.
