Very recently, WBC and WBA world welterweight champion Keith Thurman spoke at a press conference ahead of Showtime’s Jr Middleweight world championship tripleheader to cast his eye over the challenges on the horizon for him in the welterweight division. One of the hot topics included former undisputed Jr Welterweight champion, Terence Crawford (32-0 23 KO) who was recently declared the mandatory challenger for the welterweight WBO Champion, Jeff Horn (17-0-1).
Keith Thurman was insistent that Crawford needs to prove himself as a major force in the welterweight division, before leaping straight into a world title fight with him. The founder and CEO of Top Rank Inc, Bob Arum who promotes former the 2-weight world champion Terence Crawford has issued his response to Thurman’s claims.
The undefeated WBA and WBC welterweight champion claimed recently that Crawford would need to become a “relevant” welterweight before he would consider fighting Crawford. If Thurman did agree to face Crawford at some point, Arum doesn’t think Thurman would be any match for the undefeated Crawford, who’s promoted by Arum’s company, Top Rank Inc.
Arum started by explaining despite Thurman downplaying the significance of a clash with ‘Bud’ Crawford; it is a fight that remains firmly in their crosshairs and Arum even went as far as to suggest exclusively to BoxingScene.com “Thurman really doesn’t have much of a chance with Terence”.
Arum also touched on the other very promising and dangerous asset to the welterweight division in the form of the IBF world title holder, Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence (22-0). Arum shared his view that he believes Spence poses the biggest threat to his Omaha native charge’s quest for supremacy at 147 lbs arguing there will be huge ramifications on the line when Spence and Crawford engage into battle “Spence is a terrific, terrific fighter, and he and Terence, I think, will be a major, major fight down the road.”
Arum, however, made his intention to chase the best in the division regardless of who it is and Crawford is prepared for either Spence or Thurman. “If Thurman fights Spence and Thurman happens to beat Spence, which I don’t think he will, then, you know, we’d approach Thurman as far as doing a fight with Terence. But the way I really look at it, without knowing for sure, is that Spence beats those guys on that side of the table and Spence and Terence then fight for supremacy. And that, I think, is a big fight. But I could be wrong.” Arum said when analysing the potential clash which will leave fight fans salivating in 2018.
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