Is Terence Crawford vs. Manny Pacquiao Primed and Ready?
What a difference a few months make.
When Terence Crawford was asked about the prospect of a Manny Pacquiao bout after he'd grounded Hank Lundy into a fine powder in February, the Nebraskan didn't mince words.
"I'm ready," he told HBO's Max Kellerman. "Bob [Arum], make it happen."
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Fast forward to Saturday night in Las Vegas, and he was a little less insistent.
"Whatever. I let my coaches handle that," Crawford told Kellerman, who asked the same question following Crawford's scorecard rout of Viktor Postol at the MGM Grand. "I'm a fighter, I fight anybody. Anybody. I'm looking for all the biggest and best fights to get me to that next level."
It probably wasn't the answer the HBO crew sought as a tagline to Crawford's first pay-per-view. Jim Lampley instantly went into expectations-management mode to close the broadcast—suggesting a duel could come in the Filipino's second return bout, rather than his retirement-ender on Nov. 5.
But don't let the television machinations fool you.
If the fight's not made in four months, it's not because Crawford's not ready.
In fact, if such a delay occurs, it may be because he's too ready.
"It's a very fun matchup," HBO's Roy Jones Jr. said Saturday.
"Terence Crawford can fight left-handed or right-handed, and we haven't seen Pacquiao in there with a guy who can do that. Pacquiao would have a bigger puzzle to figure out. And as we all know, Pacquiao has been taken out by big punchers. Terence Crawford is a big puncher."
The former four-division champion's gushing was similar after Crawford's defeat of Lundy, when Jones suggested the fighter was "ready for anybody on the planet that's close to his weight class."
"Terence Crawford is ready for anybody in the world, in any weight class right now," he said, brushing off a suggestion by Freddie Roach that Crawford couldn't handle the likes of Pacquiao. "For him to say he's not ready for Manny Pacquiao, I think that's very wrong."
Given the promotional and network divides that are the signature element of modern boxing, it's always something of a crapshoot to predict what a guy will do going forward.
Regardless, there's no question the kid has options.
And it'll be up to the 37-year-old Pac, not the 28-year-old "Bud," whether this one gets done.
It was reportedly on the table in the spring before the former seven-division champion opted for a third go-round with Timothy Bradley for a would-be April 9 swan song. That rubber match generated lukewarm interest at best, and once Pacquiao decided a third straight rout of Bradley wasn't fit for a pre-Canastota exit, Crawford's door was reopened.
Arum started making promotional statements about Crawford and Pacquiao a while back—the way he used to do about Brandon Rios when Bam Bam was an unbeaten lightweight champion.
"Down the road—and it's very possible—that a year from now we put him in with Pacquiao," the Top Rank czar said, after Crawford ripped Yuriorkis Gamboa in June 2014.
"That would be a huge fight and a great fight. If you really think you have a great fighter with superstar qualities, you move him that way; you don't protect him. You move a superstar into the biggest fights you can make for him, and that's what we are going to do."
After Crawford chopped down former sparring mate Ray Beltran in a 135-pound farewell and now Thomas Dulorme, Dierry Jean, Lundy and Postol in four title-worthy performances at 140, it's far less difficult to perceive him competing with Top Rank's most prized financial property.
Roach's opinions notwithstanding.
And after finishing off Lundy five months ago, Crawford made it clear he'd be available.
Saturday's posturing notwithstanding, it's a safe bet that mindset still holds.
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