By JEREMIAH SEVILLA
Top Rank Promotions boss Bob Arum revealed that an investor, most likely from the Middle East, is willing to shoulder the massive site fee to make the much-publicized fight between Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford a reality.
Talking in the Barbershop Conversations podcast, Arum said that Kenny Porter, father and manager of former world champion Shawn, tried to arrange a match between his son and reigning WBO welterweight king Crawford, but then the brilliant idea of a Pacquiao-Crawford fight popped up.
“He (Kenny) came to our office about two weeks ago to talk about a Crawford-Porter fight. And then out of nowhere, the idea of a tremendous site fee, the possibility of doing Pacquiao-Crawford came up,” said Arum.
“Obviously, it’s more money for Terence and Terence would prefer a Pacquiao fight against anybody else,” the legendary 89-year-old promoter added.
Pacquiao, the lone eight-division world champion and the WBA (Super) welterweight title holder before getting demoted as “champion in recess”, reportedly wants to face the younger, three-division titlist Crawford at a price.
The 42-year-old fighting senator is eyeing to pocket $40 million from a $50 million purse in his possible fight versus the 33-year-old American boxer.
A long-time friend who refused to be identified said Pacquiao wants to fight in May.
And Pacquiao’s asking price should get covered through the enormous site fee.
“Somebody is willing to spend big money to get a Pacquiao-Crawford fight and the site fee, that then distorts everything,” said Arum, who confidently added that the Pacquiao-Crawford matchup can easily trump the Crawford versus Errol Spence Jr. faceoff in terms of revenue.
“Pacquiao-Crawford has more money in it because of the site fee which distorts everything. In other words, maybe Spence-Crawford does better pay-per-view numbers than Pacquiao and Crawford, but again that’s only a small pot of the whole picture.”
“Even though the pay-per-view numbers may not be as big, the overall revenue is much bigger for a Pacquiao fight if the site fee materializes.”
Arum, who previously had the iconic Filipino boxer as his main man before the latter left Top Rank in 2018, said the fate of the Pacquiao-Crawford clash will be determined this week. If it doesn’t push through, Arum will arrange a Crawford-Porter fight instead.
Pacquiao has not been in the ring since beating Keith Thurman via split decision to snare the WBA (Super) welterweight belt in July 2019.
But the pride of General Santos City recently returned to training, saying via Twitter that his “training camp has begun” and “I’m ready to get back in the ring and further add to my legacy in the sport of boxing.”
“Big news is coming soon,” added Pacquiao, hinting at a possible fight this year.
[ Barbershops Conversation: https://youtu.be/J8glHYAc5RQ (Pacquiao-Crawford topic starts at 20:06) ]
