When Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford were both under the Top Rank Boxing banner, there was talk of Crawford potentially facing Pacquiao in what would’ve potentially represented a star-making performance for Crawford. However, there were never really any serious talks, and Pacquiao has since parted ways with Top Rank to join Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.

If you believe Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, he says he was the one who made sure the fight never happened.

In an interview with FightHubTV, Arum admitted that he felt Pacquiao would’ve been steamrolled by the current WBO welterweight champion, and didn’t want to see him get severely damaged.

“Well I killed the fight,” Arum said. “Yeah. No, [I wouldn’t want that for Manny] because I know how it would end... not that I knew that it would end in serious disability for Manny — that I wouldn’t know — but as a fight it would only end one way.

“Forget my emotions, I wouldn’t wanna see him take that kind of damage because it might affect his quality of his future life,” he added.

For what it’s worth, there sure wasn’t great interest from Pacquiao’s camp a couple of years ago.

Arum was also asked prior to the Pacquiao vs. Crawford topic about how he felt about the 40-year-old Pacquiao fighting much younger opponents, such as 29-year-old Adrien Broner two weeks ago. His concern for Pacquiao’s long-term health was brought up there, too.

“Well all I would say is that I just hope that he doesn’t get hurt,” Arum said. “You know, when you reach a certain age it becomes more dangerous than if you’re younger, because the cranium doesn’t enable you to absorb blows if you’re older than if you were younger. When you’re younger it has a lot more resilience than when you’re older. Now that’s not invariably the case, that wasn’t the case with George Foreman, but pretty well it’s been the case.

“So you just have to hope. Manny Pacquiao’s a wonderful person, he brought lot to the sport, he does a lot for his country, and you wouldn’t want to see him get hurt.”

Pacquiao’s next opponent isn’t set, but possible showdowns against younger opponents like Errol Spence Jr, Keith Thurman, or Shawn Porter are all on the table. Meanwhile, Crawford is set to face Amir Khan on ESPN PPV on April 20th in New York City.