Don't talk to Terence Crawford about the proverbial "wrong side of the street" that's supposedly in the way of Crawford and top PBC boxers clashing in the ring and putting their titles on the line.
The WBO welterweight champion and arguable pound-for-pound best boxer in the world doesn't want to hear it.
"Any fight can happen," Crawford told DAZN News when the topic was broached Wednesday during pre-press conference access.
When pushed to answer if the "wrong side of the street" even exists, Crawford scowled: "Not at all."
A look at the boxing docket in the New Year proves Crawford's statement true. At the onset of this fight week, Crawford sat down with former pound-for-pound best Andre Ward and pointed to the Feb. 22 rematch between WBC heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder and lineal champ Tyson Fury as proof that the "wrong side of the street" is nothing more than a fallacy. After all, Wilder fights under the PBC banner and Fury is signed to Top Rank.
That should make it all the more foreseeable for the two sides to cement a bout with Crawford against Errol Spence — after the unified welterweight champion fully recovers from his terrifying October car accident. Or how about Crawford against Keith Thurman? And you already know that "Bud" is still interested in fighting Manny Pacquiao before the legend calls it a career and doesn't turn back.
Yet, Crawford dismissed any such chatter Wednesday, saying, "I don't want to talk about that," referring to the street that doesn't exist.
Bob Arum, though, will gladly talk about it.
"You got to look at the fighters in his category that (Al) Haymon promotes — PBC — that (Crawford) would be interested in," the founder and CEO of Top Rank told DAZN News. "Errol Spence is on the shelf I don't know how long, but a considerable period. Pacquiao never wanted him. When Pacquiao was with me, he would never fight him.
"The fight that could be made that would be interesting is Crawford and (Shawn) Porter," the venerable promoter continued. "Crawford and Danny Garcia does nothing for me. That's too easy of a fight, but Crawford and Porter is a good, good fight, and I'll be talking to Haymon about that as a possibility."
Arum added that, with Crawford flirting with moving up in weight, WBO junior middleweight champion Patrick Teixeira "might be a good opponent for him" as well.
When Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s name came up off a recent Instagram post that Crawford made , Crawford did use the boxing legend's career as a talking point for his time coming soon.
"Mayweather had the pleasure of saying who he wants to fight, when he wants to fight," Crawford told DAZ News. "I'm not picking any fights. It'll come. It'll come. The only thing I gotta do is focus on (Saturday night), and everything else will fall into place."
The three-division world champion will put his WBO strap on the line against mandatory challenger and former two-time Olympian Egidijus Kavaliauskas (21-0-1, 17 KOs) at Madison Square Garden this weekend.
While it remains to be seen if the "Mean Machine" can test Crawford's skills, don't be surprised if Crawford features the persona of "Bud" instead of Terence at the boxing mecca just in case.
"It's two totally different persons," the champ told reporters of Terence the man vs. "Bud" with the mean streak. "When you look at 'Bud,' he's more cutthroat. When you look at Terence, he's the quieter, by the rule person. There's a time and place for everything."
The boxing world will hold the champ, Top Rank and PBC to those latter words in 2020.