Boxing Update: Pacquiao's Next Fight Could Be Sealed This Week By Top Rank CEO

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum appears open to the idea of Terence Crawford facing Manny Pacquiao.

But for now, he is weighing out things to see if a fight with the Filipino boxing icon would be better over one with Shawn Porter.

Speaking at Barbershop Conversations, Arum said that he was looking into a possible Pacquiao vs. Crawford fight. A decision could be made this week on that. If it fails to materialize, the second option for “Bud” will be Shawn Porter.

"Yeah, we’re going to see what happens, and we’ll know this week whether Pacquiao-Crawford can happen. If it doesn’t happen, since [Errol] Spence clearly doesn’t want to fight Crawford, I think Crawford-Porter would be a tremendous fight," Arum quipped.

In a previous post, it was reported that Pacquiao wanted a $40 million share while Crawford would get $10 million.

As far as Arum is concerned, that is already more than enough money that “Bud” could earn. The fact that Crawford prefers the eight-time division champion over anyone else could indicate that his super-fight should be close to being sealed.

“[Shawn's father and trainer Kenny Porter] came to our office two weeks ago to talk about a Crawford–Porter fight, and then out of nowhere the idea of a tremendous site fee, a possibility of doing Pacquiao-Crawford came up. Obviously, it’s more money for Terence. Terence would prefer a Pacquiao fight than anyone else," Arum explained.

Another name that has been mentioned is Errol Spence Jr. But the unified welterweight boxing champion wants nothing to do with Crawford.

Hence, the best way to go is for the WBO welterweight champion to focus his attention on other fighters willing to enter the ring with him. In this case, it all boils down to either Pacquiao or Porter.

"Crawford wants to fight Spence, but Spence has said loud and clear he doesn’t want to fight Crawford," Arum stated.

Crawford last fought in November 2020, winning via TKO over Kell Brook. He remains undefeated in 27 fights.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, last took the ring in July 2019 against Keith Thurman. He won via split decision and unified the WBA welterweight titles. Unfortunately, that same belt was taken from him due to inactivity.