It is not a new accusation that Bob Arum and Top Rank have problems promoting black fighters.
This goes back several decades. The validity of those claims can be debated because black fighters have been with Arum their entire careers and others who have left for what they said were greener pastures. Terence “Bud” Crawford has always been an interesting case because everyone knows that Crawford is one of the best, if not THE BEST pound-for-pound, fighter in the world.
The problem is throughout his career, he hasn’t been able to showcase that talent in marquee fights. Even his latest fight against Shawn Porter had to be threatened with a purse bid before a deal actually got done.
Over the years, Arum has stated that he loses money every time Crawford fights. He once famously said he could take all the money he lost on Crawford and build a mansion in Beverly Hills from scratch (implies it has been in the tens of millions). Arum often said this while Crawford was standing or sitting right next to him.
Once Crawford was no longer contractually obligated to Top Rank, he decided he had enough of the disrespect and filed a lawsuit. Here are the details of the lawsuit via NY Post.
Welterweight champion Terence Crawford is challenging famed boxing promoter Bob Arum in a bombshell lawsuit, claiming the promoter’s “revolting racial bias” prevented him from landing big fights and earning tens of millions of dollars, according to court papers filed in Nevada.
Crawford, who signed a deal with 90-year-old New York-born Arum and his company Top Rank in 2011, alleges in this complaint that Arum “Simply does not care about, support, or know how to promote Black fighters,” and deliberately didn’t build him into a marquee pay-per-view star.
The fighter has hired top attorney Bryan Freedman and is suing for almost $10 million — but the blows he rains on Arum in the lawsuit are far more damaging.
The lawsuit filed in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Nevada on Wednesday states, “Crawford shines a spotlight on the systemic racism that runs through Top Rank, Top Rank’s complete inability to properly promote Black fighters, and Top Rank, Arum and [his son-in-law] Todd DuBoeuf’s disparate treatment of Black fighters, including Crawford.”
Crawford alleges in further fighting talk in the filing, “Arum clearly allows his revolting racial bias to impact the fighters he is obliged to promote.”
“For years, professional boxers and others in the sports world have called out Top Rank’s owner Bob Arum for his disparate treatment of Black boxers, including those very same Black boxers that Top Rank is contractually obligated to promote.
“Because this is boxing, a sport with a checkered history, and because Arum is now dismissed as just a grumpy old white man, Arum continues to make racist and bigoted statements and purposefully damage the reputations of Black boxers without any consequences.
This has been bubbling under the surface for a long time.
We will see how Top Rank handles it. Arum says he hasn’t seen the lawsuit but calls it ridiculous. Here is the official statement given to BSO from Top Rank.
“Bud Crawford’s lawsuit against Top Rank is frivolous. 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 color. I have no doubt the Court will see Crawford’s case for the malicious extortion attempt that it is.”
There is no word on if this means we are any closer to a Spence-Crawford fight.
Flip the page for Arum telling everyone how he loses money on Crawford.