By Doug Gillen: Shawn Porter is predicting that Terence Crawford will leave Top Rank in 2021 and ink with Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] in 2021 so that he can make more money.
The 33-year-old Crawford has arguably reached a dead end with his career with Top Rank, as he’s getting older, and the level of opposition he’s facing isn’t improving to any great extent.
If Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs), who holds the WBO welterweight title, moves on after his contract with Top Rank expires in October 2021, he could have some interesting fights with the PBC 147-pounders.
The PBC fighters that Crawford could potentially face are as follows:
- Manny Pacquiao
- Errol Spence Jr
- Danny Garcia
- Shawn Porter
- Keith Thurman
Those are the big five that Crawford would obviously like to fight if he were to sign with PBC, but he’ll need to make the move in signing with that company for those fights to have a chance of happening.
Porter wants Crawford
“Really, the only thing preventing me from fighting Terence Crawford is the fact that he and I both haven’t said yes; if he’s willing to say yes, the fight will happen,” said Porter.
“I have, and the willingness to fight someone who a lot of people feel he’s feared and a lot of people don’t want to fight him,” said Porter.
The former IBF welterweight champion ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter is a bad match-up for Crawford, who has never fought anyone with a good chin, and with the inside game that he has.
Crawford looked badly marked up around the face after just three rounds in his recent fight against past his best former IBF 147-pound champion Kell Brook on November 14th.
If Brook was able to do that much damage to Crawford’s face in three rounds, you can begin to understand what Porter would do to him in a fight that went into the later rounds.
Crawford isn’t going to fight someone as difficult as Porter while crowds are still unavailable. Terence isn’t from Texas, so he can’t make a match between him and Porter to that state the way Errol Spence Jr did last Saturday against Danny Garcia.
IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence is a Texas native, and that’s where his main fan base is located. For the Crawford-Porter fight to happen, they’ll need to until after a vaccine is introduced to the public, which is supposed to happen by next summer.
Shawn predicting Crawford leaves Top Rank
“I know him, he’s going to make a business decision based on what’s best for his career,” said Porter about his belief that Crawford will leave Top Rank in 2021.
“I can see him making a move to PBC because this is where the money can be made, and this is where the biggest fights can be made.
If you’re Bob Arum, I got a feeling Bob Arum is understanding that he’s (Crawford) ready to make that move and because it’s going to happen I’m going to say what I feel and I don’t think he should do that,” said Porter.
It might not help Crawford if he leaves Top Rank to sign with PBC, as those fighters may choose to ignore him. Porter obviously wants to fight Crawford, but his style is a bad one for him.
Porter has the best chance of beating Crawford and perhaps even knocking him out of all the PBC fighters.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has obviously been reacting to Crawford’s comments in public, and he’s clearly not happy with that situation.
Crawford wants Top Rank to match him against the best fighters, but unfortunately, those guys are with PBC.
All the welterweights that Crawford wants to fight are with that company, and they’ve not shown interest in making those fights for him, which is understandable because Top Rank competes with them.