WITH the Terence Crawford vs Amir Khan April 20 WBO welterweight world title, Top Rankโs Bob Arum is launching the first pay-per-view fight on ESPN.
โWe 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. โWeโre going to do pay-per-view the same way itโs always been done so the audience is the whole American public. Everybody has ESPNโฆ Very few people who have any television at all donโt have ESPN. The fact that ESPN is distributing it, doesnโt 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. โVery, very promotable, weโre going to do huge numbers,โ Arum said. โHe [Crawford] is the best welterweight.โ
โAmir wants to prove how great he is and what kind of ability he has and heโs getting paid very well and he knows as a fighter that even if he doesnโt beat Crawford, heโs going to put up a hell of a fight, get tremendous publicity and heโs going to make a Kell Brook fight down the road a lot more valuable,โ the promoter continued.
Crawford is expected to box three times in 2019. โCrawfordโs going to fight twice more this year. Weโre going to look for the best possible opponent. Weโll 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. โIf guys like [WBC champion Shawn] Porter and [WBA champion Keith] Thurman are not available, then Crawford will fight those guys.โ