Terence Crawford files lawsuit against former promoter

Terence Crawford files lawsuit against former promoter and accuses Bob Arum of 'racial bias'.

WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford has filed a lawsuit against his former promoter Top Rank, alleging that "revolting racial bias" on the part of chief executive Bob Arum damaged his career.

Crawford, 34, left Top Rank in November 2021 after his contract expired, having first signed with the promoter in 2011.

His suit, which seeks over £3.9m ($5.4m) in damages, was described as "frivolous" by Arum, 90, who has worked with the likes of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Tyson Fury in his career.

Crawford is alleging breach of contract as well as fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, and claims Arum and Top Rank failed to follow through on promises to secure a unification fight with Errol Spence Jr.

The Nebraska fighter has been chasing a fight with WBC and IBF champion Spence Jr for several years and alleges he had an agreement with Top Rank in 2019 that he would receive a £655,000 ($900,000) payment if the company failed to make an offer "in good faith" to Spence Jr by the end of 2020.

He also alleges Arum "continues to make racist and bigoted statements and purposefully damage the reputations of black boxers".

Arum released a statement responding to the allegations.

"Bud Crawford's lawsuit against Top Rank is frivolous," Arum said.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cp...1354569380.jpg

"His vile accusations of racism are reckless and indefensible. He knows it, and his lawyer knows it. I have spent my entire working life as a champion of black boxers, Latino boxers, and other boxers of colour. I have no doubt the court will see Crawford's case for the malicious extortion attempt that it is."

Crawford, now a free agent, has won world titles at three weights and is considered one of the best fighters in the world.

Unbeaten in 38 professional bouts, he is expected to again push for a meeting with Spence Jr in 2022.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/59981499

I'm not convinced Arum is racist against black people, I think he is an equal opportunity liar, thief and general corrupt guy.

Madness....seems like a sure fire way to not get himself a new promoter. How's the gonna promote himself? Hardly a big ticket seller even with a big name promoter.

He went back to Arum.

He’s been running from Spence ever since.

34 years old and done nothing at 147.

Arum is an equal opportunist when it comes to missed opportunities and underhanded ways but feels a little low ball for Bud to go this route. 10+ years with the man and does all his barking this late on when he finally stepped up. Something tells me Haymon will lap this up though and hopefully Bud isn't led around by his nose. Let the lawyers lawyer just secure another name fight, clocks ticking at 35.

Crawford is not being advised properly. He can't go after old man Bob like this. I don't see this going very well for Crawford because all it will do is distract him from fighting...

I don't know what to make of it. I can see his dissatisfaction with his tenure under arum. Listening to the details of both sides A few thoughts spring to mind:

- I thought playing the race card was beneath Bud. So I was surprised when i saw it, the amount of money he's suing for doesn't seem as high as one would expect, so I in that sense I think maybe Bud feels like there is a legit monetary value attached to time wasted due to Arums promotional shortcomings. I mean the fans had been saying it for quite a while, that Bud should be facing and showcasing against better fighters.

- Floyd trying to contact Bud after the Porter fight (it being public knowledge that his contract was up with Arum) and making public statements in interviews about how bud doesn't need a promoter and should self promote etc because its what Floyd did, might be at the root of this. The race card seems familiar and the slave wages comment pops up immediately when bringing you see his name come up.

-Arums admission that there may have been mistakes but that's the business and that its Buds fault for not promoting himself, is ridiculous also. He pays you to promote him. Your money comes off the top in every pay check to do exactly that. If he should be a self promoter, what the hell does he need you for? You can take the most boring guy around or the most exciting fighter around and the promoters job is the same. More work if you're promoting the boring fighter, but the responsibility and obligation is the same for the money you're taking.

- Arum does have a point though when he claims the notion that he would deliberately sandbag and lose money to not promote a fighter based on race is pretty absurd. Anyone knows Arum would promote a schoolyard fight for a $1.25 if he thought he could double his money.

- The statement that Arum doesn't know how to promote black fighters is standing in the shadow of the boxing history books. Perhaps they have to be more specific to the time period to have some merit behind that statement. The fact that Buds legal team is citing Floyd Mayweather as their prime example/ corroborating evidence seems to make this more of a Mayweather vs Arum, rather than Bud vs Arum. Again a nod to Floyd's possibly being in Bud's ear.

- Don kings Support of Arum, does say much to me about the case being without merit as much as it says Kings trying to avoid copy cat lawsuits.