Eddie Hearn: “Arum Was Brutally Honest, I Wouldn’t Have Done That”

Eddie Hearn believes Top Rank and Terence Crawford are done

In recent weeks the strain between WBO world welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (37-0, 28 KO’s) and Top Rank promotions has becoming increasingly public. During the Crawford v Brook fight weekend, Bob Arum essentially said it is 50/50 coin toss if Bud even remains with the company. While fielding questions for the media, Arum repeatedly stated that because the WBO champ does not promote, he does not sell. As a result, the veteran promoter was rather blunt in his admission that Top Rank was hemorrhaging money putting on Crawford bouts. To the ears of rival Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, its sounds like the death knell of their working relationship.

“You have almost to like him for the fact he is so brutally honest! I mean to stand up there, on that platform on ESPN, and basically say, ‘this guy is costing me a load of money and I don’t know if I want to spend it anymore,’ I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s the moment that you should be champing your guy. Whether you think the guy is making too much money, whether he is costing you too much money, whether you’re losing money at that point, as far as I am concerned, you have to talk about him as if he is god!”

“The fact that you are saying this guy is too expensive and you’re losing money basically means this guy doesn’t have the commercial worth that you need. And therefore it’s difficult for you to land the big fights. What he said is true, but it’s not something that I would have done. Especially when my fighter’s standing on the right of me! But I think that Bob is at the end of his tether, there is obviously a poor relationship there now between Terence Crawford and Top Rank…and to say that, I think that the relationship is over, to be honest with you. They’ll carry on working together, that’s all about the business, but the relationship is over.”

MIGHT BE THE SAME PROBLEM EVERYWHERE

Hearn is certainly dumbstruck with Arum’s comments. However, he admits that if he were to sign Crawford, he might find himself in the same boat.

“When you talk about, ‘would you be interested in signing him,’ we may have the same problem as Top Rank. When you’re doing fights like Kell Brook and Amir Khan all you’re ever going to do, if your Top Rank, is lose money. Unless you can deliver him [Manny] Pacquiao in the Middle East or the [Errol] Spence fight on Pay-Per-View, and could I deliver those fights? I don’t know? And if I couldn’t deliver those fights do I want to take the position of Top Rank of losing money?”

Regardless of how tattered their working relationship is, Bud has about another year to go on his contract. Therefore, it will be interesting to see what kind of comments come from Arum and Crawford moving forward.

By: Bakari Simpson

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