Terence Crawford reiterates that he won’t take a pay cut

Terence Crawford won’t fight if he has to take a pay cut.

Bob Arum, who promotes Crawford, said he wants to get Crawford back into the ring this fall and reeled off a list of potential opponents, led by Manny Pacquiao but also including Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Yordenis Ugas and Kell Brook.

Here’s the problem: If Crawford has to fight behind closed doors because of the coronavirus threat – without a live gate – he might not get paid as much as he believes he’s worth.

“Just don’t try and tell me I have to take a pay cut because of a pandemic,” Crawford said during a recent appearance on “The Last Stand Podcast.” “I don’t feel that’s right when I’ve already went through what I had to go through coming up.

“Now you’re telling me go back to Ground 1 and take a pay cut. I just don’t feel like I can do that.”

As a result, we might not see Crawford fight until the pandemic eases to a point where fans will be allowed into arenas.

“We’re hamstrung because none of these [venues] want to commit to a fight this year because of the coronavirus,” Arum said. “And Kell Brook, if we made [that fight], we couldn’t get him (into the United States).”

Top Rank, Arum’s company, has been staging cards without spectators in a tightly controlled ball room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.