Opinion: Terence Crawford in Difficult Position

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

Terence Crawford is in a tough spot.

He’s arguably one of the top three skilled boxers in the sport but fights under the Top Rank promotional banner, where the options for opponents are limited and the ability to market him took a major hit when HBO’s budget cuts came into the picture.

Coming off of a scintillating but expected destruction of Hank Lundy in February, there has been a bit of difficulty trying to find Crawford’s next opponent. Manny Pacquiao is tied up with Timothy Bradley, and Crawford is not expected to fight either man, with Pacquiao retiring and Bradley saying the two would never face one another. A proposed bout with the always-exciting Ruslan Provodnikov went up in smoke when the “Siberian Rocky” opted to take his talents to Showtime and face John Molina on June 11. That leaves Crawford with very few options. When you combine that with Crawford being a young fighter who needs to be active and a network that doesn’t have the funds to keep him busy, you have the next best thing: pay-per-view.

Top Rank’s Bob Arum stated that the unbeaten Crawford’s next fight will be headed to PPV on July 23. While it initially may sound like a good thing that “Bud” is making the leap to PPV, this is a terrible idea. However, with everyone’s hands tied, what can you do?

For one, Crawford is far from a big enough star in boxing to carry a PPV? By himself, Crawford has yet to become a mainstream talent that people are tripping over themselves to watch. Unlike Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, he doesn’t have a country behind him that’s willing to shell out money to watch him fight anyone. Think about it: Gennady Golovkin is the most exciting boxer on the planet, and only 100,000 people ponied up the cash to watch his PPV debut against David Lemieux in a bout that everyone concluded would end with an exciting knockout. Crawford has yet to become that guy.

Second, who is Crawford going to fight that will have anyone willing to watch on pay-per-view? Arum’s options are very limited. The one option that makes the most sense is Viktor Postal, but nobody outside of diehard boxing fans has a clue about Postal and you’ll be hard pressed to make boxing fans cough up the cash to watch these two fight in a 140-pound unification bout on PPV. Who’s left after that? Better question: Who’s left that people care about? You could put Crawford in the ring with Jessie Vargas at welterweight. However, you’re pretty much in the same spot you were with Postol. Nobody cares that much about Vargas, either. It leaves Crawford in the unfortunate position of being a very good fighter with very few options to get him over.

This is where Arum’s effort to break down the walls of communication with Al Haymon’s Premiere Boxing Champions and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions comes into play. It’s not necessarily because he wants to make boxing a better place; it’s because he has to in order to survive. With Pacquiao riding off into the sunset, Arum has nobody else with the ability to take the sport over like Crawford. However, all great fighters have a dance partner that assists them in catapulting into the mainstream. Arum simply doesn’t have anybody in his stable that can help get Crawford over, but Haymon and De La Hoya do.

This does not even mention that Arum’s ties with HBO become problematic and force him into a position where he has to put Crawford on PPV to keep him active. Haymon doesn’t have that issue with PBC flooding just about every channel possible with boxing. The prospect of seeing Crawford face Adrien Broner would move the PPV needle a lot more than Postol. If Crawford were willing to move up to welterweight, the likes of Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Kell Brook, Amir Khan and Danny Garcia would all be waiting, and each one could give Crawford the credibility he deserves with fight fans. Plus, he could be fighting on free TV, which would only enhance his exposure.

Right now, Crawford is trapped by his own budding greatness, HBO’s limited budget and Arum’s thin roster. Something has to give so he can realize his potential.

Andreas Hale is the editorial content director of 2DopeBoyz.com, co-host of the boxing, MMA and pro wrestling podcast “The Corner” and a regular columnist for Sherdog.com. You can follow on Twitter for his random yet educated thoughts on combat sports, music, film and popular culture.