NEW YORK ? Junior welterweight champ Terence ?Bud? Crawford is blazing toward superstardom.
Nearly everyone in boxing can see it, including the Omahan?s hall-of-fame promoter.
Bob Arum, the founder and CEO of Top Rank, is arguably the best there?s ever been at what he does. He has been the promoter for many of boxing?s all-time greats ? Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roberto Duran, Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao, to name a few.
The 85-year-old Arum believes Crawford could, one day, be thought of among those legends. It?s one reason he has the unified champ fighting at Madison Square Garden this weekend.
Crawford (30-0, 21 knockouts) will defend his WBC and WBO 140-pound titles against former Olympic champion Felix Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs) on Saturday in a bout that will be televised on HBO. The fight will be the unbeaten Omahan?s second in New York but his first in the legendary main arena at the Garden.
?Obviously, fighting in the main arena as the main event makes a statement, and it?s what our plans are,? Arum said of the junior welterweight showdown. ?And our plans are that Terence Crawford, before he hangs up his gloves, will be recognized as the greatest fighter of his time. That?s going to be up to Terence. But he has the tools, the personality and the ability to reach that goal. Our job as a promoter is (to make sure) that he has every opportunity to show the world that he is the best fighter of his era.?
To date, Crawford has shown little that would suggest he isn?t. Already considered one of the top fighters in boxing, the 29-year-old two-division champion has been dominant through 30 bouts.
And he hasn?t shied away from any fighter Top Rank or HBO has wanted to put in front of him.
?Terence has never ducked anybody,? Arum said. ?The whole time he has been with Top Rank he has never ducked an opponent. It?s not a question of matching him correctly. It?s not a question of being cautious. Terence will fight anybody who steps up to the plate.?
Diaz, who won Olympic gold for the Dominican Republic, is the next in line. He and his promoter, Lou DiBella, had been asking to face Crawford for months because they see him as the best in the division.
?When you are at the top of the division, everyone wants to fight the guy at the top, especially when they can get their name out there to boost their ratings,? Crawford said. ?He?s got the skills. He?s a good fighter. He is an Olympic gold medalist. And this is the fight that a lot of people were calling for.?
Some believe Diaz, whose lone professional loss came in a questionable majority decision against current welterweight beltholder Lamont Peterson, could prove to be Crawford?s toughest foe yet.
Others see the Brooklyn-based Dominican southpaw as another stepping stone to a bigger fight for Crawford. One of the names that has already been brought up for a bout later this year is Julius Indongo.
The widely unknown Namibian holds the other two title belts, the WBA and IBF, in Crawford?s division after his one-sided victory over former WBA champion Ricky Burns, whom the Omahan has also beaten.
Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs) is scheduled to be ringside for Crawford?s bout at the Garden on Saturday.
?Indongo is coming to the fight, and we will all talk to him when he comes to the fight,? said Arum, who also brought up Pacquiao and lightweight champion Mikey Garcia as potential foes for Crawford this year. ?If the kid says he wants to fight Terence, and that?s the fight, then we?ll make it happen.?
If Crawford-Indongo does happen, history could be on the line. Only once in the era of boxing?s four major sanctioning bodies has a fighter unified all four title belts to become an undisputed champion. Middleweight Bernard Hopkins did in 2004 when he knocked out De La Hoya. He later lost all four belts in a bout to Jermain Taylor, the only other fighter to simultaneously hold all four.
Indongo has already been ordered by the IBF to make a mandatory defense next, meaning he could be stripped of that belt if he chooses to fight Crawford instead. But if a workaround can be found, an undisputed title fight between two unified champions would certainly be historic.
?For people that think that?s important, that would be a great thing,? Arum said.
Crawford seems to be interested in the matchup, if he gets past Diaz, whom he isn?t overlooking.
?I never underestimate any opponent,? he said. ?I just go in there and make sure I don?t get caught with anything. I don?t want to go in there and be careless.?
