Bob Arum has been a boxing promoter for seven separate decades. The 90-year-old is revered the world over, but one thing he’s never called by those close to him is racist.
Terence Crawford, a fighter Arum took to five world titles in two weight classes, somehow believes the Top Rank boss dropped him to the bottom of the pile over his white and Hispanic counterparts.
The truth is, Terence Crawford has never been a draw throughout his career. His style of fighting and personality doesn’t sell.
Arum knew this the whole time and did a marvelous job with what he had to work with surrounding the Omaha man.
After becoming undisputed at super-lightweight, Crawford should have been a massive Pay Per View star. However, he’s now blaming Arum for the fact his career has failed to ignite from day one.
Massively frustrated, what Crawford fails to realize is that Bob Arum would have been just as frustrated as him that he couldn’t get over the PPV threshold.
Despite cleaning out at 140, Crawford didn’t hold an audience. He then moved up to 147 walked into a crop of fighters and champions sitting in a rival camp. They were kept in-house and at arm’s length.
That’s not his fault, and it’s not Bob Arum’s fault. It’s just the way it is.
Crawford dominated most of his opponents through his 38 fights and wasn’t fan-friendly despite his many victories. This output turned fans off in their droves.
Since moving up to welterweight, Crawford hasn’t landed any significant opponents. Sadly, Crawford never deserved to be anywhere near the pound-for-pound number one spot.
Somehow, Arum managed to convince networks that he was. This scenario doesn’t get considered in the recent lawsuit filed by Crawford.
Accusations of championing white and Hispanic fighters over him and not pushing him on Pay Per View seem wild and ill-conceived. You have to consider that no Top Rank fighters, white, black, or Hispanic, have been able to smash the paid platform since Manny Pacquiao.
There’s no evidence to suggest any fighter, whatever the color of his skin, was pushed on PPV ahead of Crawford.
Vasyl Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, and many other Top Rank stars cited haven’t been able to crush that market whatsoever.
So what’s Crawford’s argument? – If it’s the fact that he doesn’t get the credit he deserves from his career, then that’s not Arum or Top Rank’s fault.
The opponents just haven’t been there for ‘Bud.’ The fact Al Haymon signed all the top stars doesn’t fall on Arum’s lap.
Crawford should have pressed Arum for the Manny Pacquiao fight sooner and vehemently. If he did, that might have been the one fight that could have pushed Crawford further.
BOB ARUM ‘RACIAL BIAS’
But labeling Arum racist when he’s worked with some of the most prominent black fighters in history without major incidents is dumbfounding.
Arum has his flaws, as everyone does. But there’s nothing in the record books to suggest that he does all he can to suppress black fighters. It just doesn’t make sense.
The whole thing whiffs of a frustrated boxer, much the same as Floyd Mayweather when he left Arum with similar gripes before his PPV career exploded.
Let’s hope Crawford can do his own thing like Mayweather and prove he is worth pushing without bringing the color of his skin into the equation.
Unlike Mayweather, Crawford hasn’t got the pedigree or the names on his record. And time is firmly running out on that score.
The views expressed in this article are opinions of Phil Jay.
Phil Jay – Editor of World Boxing News since 2010 with over one billion views. Follow WBN on Twitter @WorldBoxingNews.
