Crawford is one of the three candidates who are being considered by Pacquiao to be his next opponent. The other two include Timothy Bradley and Amir Khan.
“We’re just waiting to hear from Manny. He is on vacation now and probably not worried about picking a fighter right now,” Crawford said.
While Crawford has fought some big names in boxing including Yuriorkis Gamboa, Ricky Burns, Raymundo Beltrán and Thomas Dulorme among others, he hasn’t been tested against elite fighters like Pacquiao.
“I feel great about it. I feel like I was overdue for a big fight before I even won my championship,” Crawford said. “I should have already had a chance against a big name being that in my career I only had two fights in 2010 and three fights in 2011, so I really wasn’t getting the fights I needed then because I didn’t have a promotional company behind me.”
Crawford is ranked No.2 in the Rings light welterweight limit of 140 pounds. He could challenge Victor Postol, who is ranked No.1, or Ruslan Provodnikov, who is No. 3 in the list. Or he can move up to 147 to challenge Timothy Bradley and Jessie Vargas, who are stable mates at Arum’s Top Rank Promotions.
While Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach can go along with Pacquiao’s choice of Crawford, he now favors a rematch with Bradley. But he is hoping Mayweather will suddenly come out with an announcement pave the way for a second fight between him and Pacquiao.
Roach was quoted to have said that Pacquiao’s decision to name his opponent in a week’s time has been postponed until early next year.
No one knows why the announcement is being held in abeyance, but it’s possible that secret talks are ongoing between Pacquaio and Mayweather for a rematch.
It may be recalled that Pacquiao and Mayweather exchanged phone numbers in their first personal meeting in Florida during an NBA game for ease of communications.
Again, no one knows if they are indeed communicating by phone at this time, which is why Pacquiao has reportedly postponed his announcement regarding the Crawford fight.