By Chris Williams: Shawn Porter wasn’t impressed with the performance by Terence Crawford from his victory over Egidijus Kavaliauskas on December 14. Porter thinks that should have been an easy fight for WBO welterweight champion Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) given that he was facing that isn’t a world champion, and has never won a belt before.
Shawn is still interested in fighting Crawford, but he’s looking in another direction given that he doesn’t want the fight. Former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) his 2-fighter shortlist is Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr. But he’s holding out hope that a fight with Crawford can happen. However, Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum is eager to match him against Conor McGregor in 2 fights. The first would take place inside the octagon. So essentially, Crawford would be walking the plank for the first fight with Conor.
Despite Crawford’s claims that he wasn’t knocked down by Kavaliauskas, Porter says he absolutely was dropped by him. The referee Ricky Gonzalez gave Crawford a HUGE break by ruling it a slip when in reality is a clear knockdown. Crawford got nailed with a right to the head, and he went down.
Porter wants Crawford, Spence and Pacquiao
“My list is extremely short. It’s Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence,” said Shawn Porter to the boxing media about who he wants next. “That’s all I’m training for. That boy had my stomach hurting,” said Porter on Terence Crawford struggling in his last fight against Egidijus Kavaliauskas.
“I don’t remember which round it was in he GOT DROPPED in, but he had my stomach hurting,” Porter said about Crawford getting knocked down by Kavaliauskas. “I was, ‘Boy, you can’t lose this fight to this dude.’ We’ll see,” Porter said when asked by Mark Kriegal of ESPN if he wants to fight Crawford.
“After 2 or 3 rounds, I’m saying, ‘You [Crawford] need to go southpaw. I think you need to turn southpaw and see where that gets you. At least see where that gets you,'” Porter said about the adjustments he wanted him to make early on against Kavaliauskas. “And I think up until he turned southpaw, he was really having some trouble. He turned southpaw, and he figured it out,’ said Porter on Crawford.
Porter lost to Spence by a 12 round split decision last September at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Some boxing fans think the 32-year-old Porter did enough to rate the win, but the judges thought otherwise. Although initially, Spence was seemingly agreeable to running it back for a second Porter fight, he’s now looking elsewhere.
Given Spence’s bad car crash from last October, he’s probably not going to entertain the idea of getting back in the ring with Shawn right away. If Porter is going to get a rematch, it’ll be in 2021, as long as Spence is still cogent. Spence sounded unwell in his first interview after the car crash. Unless he’s healed since then, a second fight won’t happen straight away.
Porter: Why did it take Crawford so long to turn southpaw?
“It seemed like night and day when he hurt that kid, and put him out in the 9th. A guy you haven’t hurt of, and you don’t know much about,” said Porter on Crawford’s struggles against Kavaliauskas. “When you’re in a close fight, it should be against a guy that is up on your level, a guy that is a champion or a former world champion.
“He’s [Kavaliauskas] not a bum, and he showed us a lot,” said Porter. “Why did it take him [Crawford] so long to turn southpaw? And why didn’t his corner tell him to turn southpaw?” said Porter.
Shawn brings up a good question about why it took Crawford so long to turn southpaw against Kavaliauskas?’ The answer might have something to dow with Crawford wanting to impress the boxing world by standing and slugging with Kavaliauskas, and not messing around with all the junk gimmicks that he uses to win.
It’s basically a waste of time. Crawford would have beaten Kavaliauskas if he’d stayed in his orthodox stance the entire fight. He didn’t need to turn southpaw to beat this guy. It wasn’t the switch to southpaw that won the fight for Terence.
Crawford uses a lot of stuff that is totally unnecessary for him to win his fights against the lesser guys that Top Rank has been matching him. He reminds me of a pitcher with 100 mph fastball. Instead of relying on that pitch to throw no hitters, he resorts to using a lot of junk pitches like curve-balls, sinkers, sliders and knuckleballs. If Crawford just stuck with the aggressive style that we saw him use to stop Kavaliauskas, he’d have a lot more boxing fans.
Porter to fight for interim WBC 147-lb title
“Danny looked good in doing what he does, but you’ve got to be fighting somebody,” said Kenny Porter to Fighthype in reacting to Garcia’s win over Ivan Redkach. ‘It doesn’t make for an exciting fight. I think it takes two to tango. So when you take on a fighter of less quality, you take on the chance you might not look good. He has the ability to perform against anybody.
“I think he’s a great fighter,” said Kenny on Danny Garcia. “No updates other than the WBC interim title is there for us,” Kenny said about Shawn Porter in discussing a possible next option for him. “We’re looking for an opponent, a top 10 guy, so we’ll see what happens. We may be in there in the next three months,” said Kenny on Shawn’s next move.
If Kenny Porter is serious about Shawn fighting for the interim WBC welterweight title, then he could up facing someone like #3 WBC Yordenis Ugas. Porter beat Ugas by a controversial 12 round split decision last March. That was a fight that a lot of boxing fans thought Porter lost.
Ugas has Porter’s number, and he likely won’t agree to fight him. If Porter doesn’t get the Spence or Pacquiao fight next, then he’ll surely take on a softer opponent.
Porter will probably fight one of these guys for the interim WBC 147-lb title:
- Ray Robinson
- Josh Kelly
- Sergey Lipinets
- Josesito Lopez
- Jamal James
- Kiryl Relikh
- David Avanesyan
- Maurice Hooker