According to reports, a junior welterweight title unification bout between Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol is a done deal for July 23. It?s a solid fight and a good match-up for Crawford as he pushes his way towards true boxing stardom.
Except, nope?As you read deeper into the story, this is not good at all.
Crawford and Postol promoter Bob Arum plans to make the 140 lb. showdown the headlining bout on a pay-per-view card, supported by Gilberto Ramirez and Ryota Murata.
Taking a rising star with elite-level ability and putting (perhaps) his most challenging and competitively crucial bout further out of the reach of the mainstream casual fan is a downright odd decision. One could even call it a boneheaded decision, actually.
If the goal is to expose Crawford to the masses and showcase a young fighter with Mayweather/Pacquiao-like potential, the move should be to nudge him closer to the mainstream audience, not push him further away.
Affixing a PPV price tag on Crawford?s fight is a guaranteed way to keep the casual fan and boxing-curious mainstream sports follower away from Crawford. Who?s going to pay fifty or sixty bucks to maybe, possibly discover someone who maybe, possibly could be the next big thing in a sport that has already driven itself into the niche sport category?
It?s hard to imagine a better way to ruin a great young fighter?s rise to stardom than to make him the headliner of a major PPV flop. And, make no mistake about it?Crawford-Postol on PPV will be a major financial flop.
One would think that a promoter?whose job is to, well, promote?would be working towards exposing his young fighter to as many eyeballs as possible, even if it?s to modest gain as the fighter?s star rises. The payoff will come when the young fighter becomes a real star and can produce blockbusters ala Mayweather, Pacquiao or even Canelo and Cotto.
But that would require too much work and too much risk. And boxing?s promoters these days are all about turning the quick buck, even if it?s at the expense of the long term well-being of the fighters and of the sport, itself.
Instead of fighting to win back the respect and attention of the mainstream sports fan, Arum and his colleagues busy themselves with efforts to wring every last penny from boxing?s most loyal fans with events that can only be described as hustles and/or cons.
Crawford-Postol doesn?t belong on pay-per-view and a case can be made that it shouldn?t even be on premium cable. If the idea is to make Crawford a real star in the truest sense of the word, then Arum should be finding a way to get the guy to as many people as possible for as little money as possible?and, ideally, for free.
A couple of weeks ago we were forced to endure wave after wave of ?Bob Arum?s so swell? articles from select media members commemorating his 50 years in the sport of boxing. And, okay, hurray for longevity and for being, at one time, a real promoter who worked hard to push his events out into the public discourse. But, for those who have been paying attention for the last thirty years or so, Arum has been a horrid hype man and just plain terrible for the sport (and the same can be said for just about everyone else ?promoting? the sport these days).
If anything, efforts to turn a quick and/or easy buck on prime talents have hurt boxing’s ability to grow beyond the niche level. And as boxing pushes itself further and further from the mainstream with its massive corruption and cynical cash grabs, the chances of a mainstream comeback grow slimmer and slimmer.
Guys like Terence Crawford deserve to be seen and admired just as much as stars from other sports. It?s just too bad that boxing?s promoters aren?t all that interested in promoting these days.
