Terence Crawford may have settled on an opponent.
The welterweight titleholder and Boxing Junkie’s No. 2 fighter pound-for-pound is in talks with former champ Kell Brook for a meeting on Nov. 14, representatives of both fighters have said.
Bob Arum, who promotes Crawford, had held out hope he could make a Crawford-Manny Pacquiao title-unification fight but that evidently isn’t going to happen. Keith Thurman reportedly was another possibility that didn’t pan out.
Thus, Arum turned to the 34-year-old Englishman.
”Kell Brook is a free agent, and we’re discussing a Crawford fight with the Kell Brook people,” Arum told ESPN. “That’s on top of our wish list.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn is representing Brook in negotiations.
“I had a couple of conversations with Bob and [Top Rank Vice President] Carl Moretti yesterday,” Heard told IFL TV Tuesday. “And I feel that’s a big fight for U.K. TV, so we’re trying to help out and get that over the line.
“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.
“[Brook] deserves it. We’re trying to make that fight happen to assist Top Rank in getting the numbers together.”
Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) is one of the biggest stars in the sport yet has had trouble luring elite opponents into the ring.
“Bud” has fought Jeff Horn, Jose Benavidez Jr., Amir Khan and Egidijus Kavaliauskas in his four welterweight fights. All four are solid, experienced fighters but were never serious threats to Crawford, which wasn’t lost on fans.
Crawford hoped to take a step up in opposition for his next fight. He reportedly was courting five prospective foes: Pacquiao, Thurman, Shawn Porter, Yordenis Ugas and Brook.
Of course, Pacquiao is the biggest of name in the group. Arum told ESPN that he had been working on a deal to have Crawford fight Pacquiao in the Middle East, where he hoped to have fans in attendance.
However, he said he was told the timing was off.
“I don’t think it’s going to be possible this year, maybe next year,” Arum said. “We’re working on it. We had the go-ahead to do it, but then the minister of health said not this year, look to do it next year.”
Thurman reportedly asked for $10 million, which eliminated him. Crawford was never keen on fighting Porter, a friend. And Ugas was probably the least sexy of the options. That left Brook.
The Sheffield fighter made a splash when he came to the U.S. and outpointed Porter to win a 147-pound title in 2014. He successfully defended three times before his career took a radical turn.
He decided to move up from 147 to 160 to challenge middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin and paid a price in September 2016. Triple-G stopped him in five one-sided rounds, breaking his right eye socket in the process.
Brook then moved back down to 147 to defend his title against Errol Spence Jr. eight months later and met with a similar fate: 11th-round knockout loss, broken left orbital bone.
He has since won three consecutive fights against second-tier opponents at junior middleweight to regain enough momentum to become a viable candidate for a big-money fight.
The selection of Brook – if a deal can be reached – isn’t going to dazzle fans but at least he’s a well-known fighter, has held a welterweight title and has a decent backstory. At the very least, Crawford, who will be 33 on Sept. 28, would be able to compare his performance against that of Golovkin and Spence.
Then he and Arum can resume their efforts to get a bigger star into the ring.
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