WITH the Terence Crawford vs Amir Khan April 20 WBO welterweight world title, Top Rankโ€™s Bob Arum is launching the first pay-per-view fight on ESPN.

โ€œWe got ESPN in the boxing business. 30 events we do with ESPN in a year in the States, 24 outside the States. This is the first ever pay-per-view fight that ESPN has done,โ€ the promoter told Boxing News. โ€œWeโ€™re going to do pay-per-view the same way itโ€™s always been done so the audience is the whole American public. Everybody has ESPNโ€ฆ Very few people who have any television at all donโ€™t have ESPN. The fact that ESPN is distributing it, doesnโ€™t mean any other connection with ESPN. You buy it from your satellite provider, from your cable system in the normal way.โ€

He is happy that Crawford-Khan is the right fight to launch this platform. โ€œVery, very promotable, weโ€™re going to do huge numbers,โ€ Arum said. โ€œHe [Crawford] is the best welterweight.โ€

โ€œAmir wants to prove how great he is and what kind of ability he has and heโ€™s getting paid very well and he knows as a fighter that even if he doesnโ€™t beat Crawford, heโ€™s going to put up a hell of a fight, get tremendous publicity and heโ€™s going to make a Kell Brook fight down the road a lot more valuable,โ€ the promoter continued.

Terence Crawford vs Amir Khan

Crawford is expected to box three times in 2019. โ€œCrawfordโ€™s going to fight twice more this year. Weโ€™re going to look for the best possible opponent. Weโ€™ll have to see who that is. Remember, lurking in the woods are these Eastern Europeans who are undefeated, who are terrific fighters, like [Egidijus] Kavaliauskas and [Alexander] Besputin,โ€ Arum said. โ€œIf guys like [WBC champion Shawn] Porter and [WBA champion Keith] Thurman are not available, then Crawford will fight those guys.โ€