Manny Pacquiao faced a who’s who of excellent fighters across several divisions, but never managed to cross paths with Terence Crawford despite both holding belts at 147lbs at the same time.
The eight-division world champion made his professional return last year, fighting then-WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios to a draw. With a professional rematch against Floyd Mayweather put on hold indefinitely due to the American’s legal troubles, he is now looking for another major fight.
It will not come against Terence Crawford, who retired in December following his victory over Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Speaking to Vibe, ‘PacMan’ was asked if there was any fight he wanted that never happened, and he named none other than ‘Bud’ Crawford, believing their shared promoter at the time, Bob Arum, ‘preserved’ the American.
“The Crawford fight. Because Bob Arum preserved him. I’m under Top Rank promotions, and he was under Top Rank promotions before, so I would’ve loved to fight him. But it never happened. Bob didn’t give it to me.”
When both men held belts at welterweight – Pacquiao after his record-breaking title win over Keith Thurman, Crawford on his run as WBO champion – the fight would have indeed been a stellar main event.
Pacquiao ended up being booked to face future Crawford rival Errol Spence Jr, but an eye injury for Spence saw Yordenis Ugas step in. Ugas beat the Filipino icon over 12 rounds before losing the belt to Spence, who would face Crawford for undisputed in 2023.
Ironically, Crawford has offered the exact same take on the fantasy match-up but with roles reversed, believing Arum wanted to keep Pacquiao away from him.
