Top Rank promoted Terence Crawford’s career for better parts of a decade until they split after Bud’s contract was complete soon after he beat Shawn Porter in 2021.
As the deal was coming to a close, relations became contentious.
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum said Crawford wasn’t a pay-per-view draw and that they lost money on every Crawford fight. Crawford, meanwhile, said he wouldn’t take any pay cuts and called for his release. By January 2022, Crawford sued Top Rank for breach of contract and claimed racial bias.
After a one-fight deal on BLK Prime, Crawford joined forces with Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions to land the career-defining fight he was seeking against Errol Spence Jr.
Crawford scored a sensational stoppage win against Spence on July 29 to win the undisputed welterweight title. In addition to a rematch versus Spence, Crawford seemingly has a series of high-profile fights lined up for him including Jermell Charlo at 154 pounds and Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds, among others.
Crawford is even entertaining a fight against Teofimo Lopez Jr., who is tied to Top Rank.
Arum does not have any regrets about missing out on perhaps the most lucrative phase of the 36-year-old Crawford’s career.
“No. Because Terence Crawford is a great talent. We always said that. The question is can you match up his economic demands with his actual marketability, and we were not able to do that. We lost a lot of money promoting his fights,” Arum told BoxingScene.com in an interview.
“I wish him well. But I’m not prepared, and my company is not prepared, to take those risks because at least with Terence it never worked out economically, even though his performances were brilliant. They’re still brilliant.”
After previously fighting to paltry PPV numbers, Crawford’s clash against Spence was a commercial success generating nearly 700,000 PPV buys domestically and more than $21,000,000 in ticket sales.
“Terence was extraordinarily good at fighting Spence. They did very well economically but if you ran it back, I really don’t believe that it would do the numbers that the first fight did,” said Arum.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.