Top Rank promoter Bob Arum spent some time talking to media members about his thoughts on the big upcoming welterweight fight between Errol Spence and Terence Crawford, and also touches on the current PPV landscape as he expresses his enthusiasm for having Josh Taylor vs Teofimo Lopez on standard ESPN. Check out some of what he had to say below.
Arum on Spence vs Crawford
“I always believed that Crawford was the better fighter, that Crawford would probably win by points or knockout — probably by knockout, but maybe by points. I really believe that Terence has too much talent for Spence, who is a very talented fighter. But I think Crawford is more talented than Spence is.”
On offering Haney vs Lomachenko at a lower price point than has become the norm as of late
“Would we have done the same number of buys if we had charged $70? You never know. We charged $60, we did more than enough buys to come out in the black, not in the red, so it is what it is. I’d rather go low on price than high on price, because if you go low on price, just naturally more people can afford and be willing to buy the fight.”
On if he intends to have a sliding scale for the price of his PPVs going forward
“You have to make a determination. If a fight is really huge and you’re spending a lot of money on the fighters, like a big heavyweight fight, you probably have to charge more money. But if you can, I believe in lowering the price and getting more people involved. And even better, if you can afford it, do it without making people pay anything like this fight [Taylor vs Lopez]. I mean, this fight could be on PPV and would do a pretty good number, but isn’t it great that it’s being offered to the fans for no additional charge to watch it on ESPN?
“We can’t in boxing put all of these fights on PPV…You’ve got to be sensible or else you’ll kill the sport.”
