Arum: Pacquiao-Crawford in Bahrain?
Oil-rich Bahrain could end up hosting one of boxing’s biggest fights before the end of 2020.
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum said Top Rank is in “serious talks” with Bahrain in bringing eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford towards the end of the year for a unification welterweight title fight.
“We hope we could get Crawford and Pacquiao in action this year and through our friends at MTK, we are in serious talk with Bahrain in doing major fights there. I love to do some big, big events in Bahrain,” said Arum in an online interview with a British outfit.
Arum, 88, who began promoting in 1966 with Muhammad Ali, feels Bahrain is capable of stepping up the plate.
“Let’s see what happens… everything is likely, everybody wants to do these events until the time comes for them to put up the money but with the money but with Bahrain, we have a good shot to get it done.”
Pacquiao, 42, fought under Arum’s banner for over ten years before deciding to sign up with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.
The 32-year-old Crawford (36-0 with
27 KOs), the World Boxing Organization titlist, is with Top Rank and is considered a leading welterweight in the world alongside World Boxing Association ruler Pacquiao and Errol Spence, holder of the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation titles.
Meanwhile, Arum is eyeing a September date for the three-belt bantamweight fight involving Naoya Inoue of Japan and John Riel Casimero.
Inoue, the WBA and IBF champion and Casimero, the WBO supremo, were supposed to face off last April 26 but the coronavirus forced its cancellation.
“We are talking with our colleagues in Japan. We are trying to arrange when we can get Inoue over here. Travel instructions are a bitch to go around,” said Arum.
Casimero is already in Las Vegas training and waiting for Inoue to arrive and Arum is moving heaven and earth to expedite his arrival in America.
“We’d like to him to be here by September then we can do his event with Casimero with a limited audience because it is so popular with Japanese and Japanese-Americans and I would like to put in an arena where we can open it for 2,500 to 3,000 people spread out. There’d be no problem selling tickets for that,” added Arum.