Retired boxing legend and promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr has expressed his wish to sign WBO welterweight champion and free agent Terence Crawford, a move which Mayweather terms as supporting a black American first.
I’ve always wanted the best for Terence Crawford: Floyd Mayweather wants to sign “Bud” ahead of Errol Spence Jr clash
Terence Crawford, who has been the reigning WBO titleholder at 147 since June 2018 and across five title defenses, parted ways with Top Rank after defeating Shawn Porter in November and two months later in January, sued Bob Arum’s company of racial bias, breach of contract and even fraud and negligent misrepresentation.
Now, as a free agent, Crawford is edging closer and closer to one of the most anticipated fights of this generation- an undisputed title clash against the current WBC, WBA (Super) and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
Spence is currently signed to Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and before their undisputed title clash, expected to be one of the biggest selling fights ever, Mayweather wants to give “Bud” the chance to make a huge payday by landing him under his own promotion.
“It’s no different from Chinese supporting the Chinese, Dominicans supporting Dominicans, Puerto Ricans supporting Puerto Ricans, Mexicans supporting Mexicans,” Mayweather told Ben Thompson, the founder of FightHype.com, “I’m a Black American. I’m going to support a Black American first. I’ve always wanted the best for Terence Crawford — always. We spoke on numerous occasions. We have each other’s phone numbers. Hopefully, everything plays out like it should, and of course, I would love to sign Terence Crawford. I talked about getting Terence Crawford the fights that he wants.”
“You see so many young fighters now starting their own promotion company. You have to be able to give fighters [$1 million and up to $6 million] in advance before you get a promotional company. I’m not talking about Terence Crawford, but fighters in general. If you’re not able to do that, and be a major promoter right now, then we should wait on that. That’s what I think. Everything has a time and a place. But I think every fighter should have a dream of being a promoter. Promoting is a rough job. You can look at me for instance. I wanted to be a promoter to help fighters, but the more I help them, the more they hate me. That comes with the territory. That comes with the sport. It is what it is.”
“I want to put fighters in a position to get the lion’s share. Before Floyd Mayweather became a promoter in the sport, the promoters were getting the lion’s share and getting more money than the fighters … I changed fighters getting crazy money,” added Mayweather. [H/T Boxingscene.com]
