Terence Crawford says Pacquiao fight almost happened before pandemic

Following his fourth successful defense of the WBO world welterweight title against Kell Brook, three-division champion Terence Crawford now has Manny Pacquiao in his crosshairs.

The 33-year-old Crawford (37-0, 28KOs) needed less than twelve minutes to beat Brook as he stopped the latter with a barrage of punches en route to a technical knockout at the 1:14 mark of round four.

Shortly after the fight, Crawford once again called out for a unification bout with WBA world welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, revealing that the fight came close to happening before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I'm looking to secure a Pacquiao fight. We were close to securing a Pacquiao fight prior to this fight but being that the COVID was getting out of hand, fans couldn't attend the fight so we had to put a halt to it,” said Crawford.

“That's when we decided to go with Kell Brook. He was the next available known welterweight that was available to fight. So now we go back to the drawing board and try to revisit that fight with Manny Pacquiao.”

Top Rank big boss Bob Arum backed Crawford’s revelation, stating was supposed to take place in the Middle East.

“The money was there. It had been committed. It was a fight that was going to take place in a country in the Middle East and then the minister of health in that country said you can't do it because I can't guarantee that we'll allow spectators,” Arum stated.

“It would've been this week so he was right. Now they've called us and said if Terence is successful we want to resume the talks and see if we can do it in the spring either before or after Ramadan.”

Pacquiao is yet to comment on Crawford and Arum’s pronouncement. The Omaha, Nebraska native has won his last eight fights via stoppage and is currently ranked as the no. 3 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. — BM, GMA News