Following the WBO’s order for its welterweight titleholder Terence Crawford to make a mandatory title defense against Shawn Porter, Crawford’s Top Rank promoter Bob Arum tells WBN that he’s not adverse to the fight and is actually looking forward to potentially promoting the fight which should be a fun style match-up between two rugged fighters.
“Don’t give me these stupid mandatories that are non-competitive fights, and because I have a top champion I have to go and bid the fight and spend shitloads of money for a non-competitive fight.”
Arum would continue by saying how it agitated him when the IBF ordered Apinun Khongsong a mandatory for Josh Taylor which not only didn’t have much fanfare but also didn’t wind up being much of a competitive fight either. That, however, certainly wouldn’t be the case between Crawford and Porter, though Arum does admit that just because it’s a fun fight stylistically doesn’t mean it’ll translate numbers wise. Arum does think this particular fight has a fair chance.
“Whoever does it gets a good fight but saying it’s a really good fight doesn’t necessarily indicate how well it will do on pay-per-view because Terence has excelled in the ring but he hasn’t excelled as a pay-per-view attraction. With this fight we got a shot to do well.”
Since the official WBO order Crawford has seemed to sort of embrace the idea of facing a formidable opponent despite having previously dismissed any interest in facing Porter in particular. Hopefully both sides can put this fight into motion sooner than later.
