KELL BROOK can steal a fight against Manny Pacquiao in Qatar away from Terence Crawford if he pulls off an upset, revealed Bob Arum.
Crawford defends his WBO welterweight crown against Sheffield’s former world champion this Saturday.
Manny Pacquiao was set to fight Terence Crawford Credit: Getty Images – Getty
Crawford defends his WBO welterweight crown against Kell BrookCredit: Getty Images – Getty
But the pound-for-pound star did have a deal in place to unify his WBO belt with Pacquiao’s WBA version – only for the coronavirus pandemic to KO the clash.
Instead, he will return to face Brook, 34, live on Premier Sports, and a win clears him to revive talks to fight Pacquiao, 41, next spring.
But if Crawford, 33, suffers a catastrophic first loss, Brook is in line to become the first man since Ricky Hatton in 2009 to take on Filipino icon PacMan.
Legendary promoter Arum told SunSport: “We tried to match Terence with Manny Pacquiao, that fight was going to be held in Qatar in November.
“But then the minister of health there said we couldn’t get a gate because of Covid and it was too dangerous, so that fight disappeared.
“We were then in touch with Brook’s people, and I was reluctant to some extent to make the match because Brook is a really big welterweight and Terence is a small welterweight.
“He came up from lightweight, then light-welterweight and Terence will give away a big, big, size advantage and Brook is a very accomplished fighter.
Brook can steal the Pacquiao fight by beating Crawford Credit: Getty Images – Getty
“I think this is a really competitive fight and if Terence doesn’t watch out, Brook is going to roll right over him, as Brook is very confident going into this.
“And if he’s successful with Terence, maybe I’ll make Brook with Manny.”
Arum is hopeful he can re-start negotiations for Pacquiao to fight Crawford in the Middle East should the three-weight champion see off Brook.
He said: “We had it done for November with the top officials in Qatar but the health minister quashed it because of Covid and quite correctly.
“They said let’s re-visit it for next year in the spring.”
If not, Arum will look to match Crawford up against the division’s other unbeaten champion, Errol Spence Jr.
Unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr Credit: Getty Images – Getty
Crawford and Spence have long rivalled each other
Spence, 30, defends his unified WBC and IBF belts agains Danny Garcia, 32, on December 5.
The fight will be in front of a limited number of fans at the Dallas Cowboys’ 105,000 seater AT&T Stadium.
But Arum warns until full capacities return, it could keep superstars Spence and Crawford separated.
He said: “If we can resurrect the Qatar deal for the spring but if not, if Spence is successful against Garcia we’ll try do that fight with PBC.
“But here’s the problem, if the coronavirus hasn’t gone away, it’s hard to do that fight without a big gate and without people back to work to afford to pay the pay-per-view.”
Kell Brook vows to leave it all in the ring against Terence Crawford and bring world title back to UK
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
