Unified junior welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford set the record straight.
He was never offered a bout with Manny Pacquiao, at any weight.
Crawford (29-0, 20 knockouts), the WBO, WBC and lineal champion at 140 pounds, took to Twitter Tuesday to make things clear “for those people that said I was scared to go up in weight to fight him.”
The recently retired Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) will return to the ring Nov. 5 to face WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas (27-1, 10 KOs) in Las Vegas for the title he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015.
Pacquiao confirmed the matchup last week. Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, who handles both fighters and Crawford, announced that the details of the fight will be disclosed at a Sept. 8 press conference.
Arum suggested last month that the winner of the 140-pound unification bout between Crawford and Victor Postol could potentially be an opponent for Pacquiao. But Pacquiao appeared to be angling toward Vargas all along, and Vargas was openly talking about the fight during Crawford-Postol week.
Crawford’s comment Tuesday verified that he was never really in the running for a Pacquiao meeting.
The champ from Omaha didn’t even comment on Pacquiao-Vargas when it was announced. Instead, he was engaged in a war of words on Twitter with WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs), a former amateur rival who was previously a unified and lineal champion at 140 before vacating.
Apparently responding to a comment made by Garcia’s outspoken father and trainer Angel Garcia, Crawford said he’d be willing to move up to 147 pounds to fight Garcia at his weight for his title belt.
Crawford then called out Garcia for paying step-aside money to Postol, then the mandatory challenger for his 140-pound title, in order to fight someone else. He then bashed Garcia’s recent “old” opponents.
Garcia’s final comment was telling Crawford to have Arum call his manager, Al Hayman.
Crawford responded with “no problem.”
A bout with Garcia, however, is also unlikely this fall. The WBC welterweight champion is reportedly close a deal to meet former 147-pound champion Andre Berto (31-4, 24 KOs) later this year.
Crawford and Garcia split two close decisions as amateurs, each winning once by a single point.
