By Chris Williams: Former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter let WBO champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford on social media on Thursday that he’ll be ready to face him in May.
Interestingly, instead of Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) jumping at the chance to readily agree to the fight against ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs), he let him know that he wants him to stay on “standby,” and he also hinted that he’s annoying him.
What this means obviously is Crawford, 33, is likely still holding out hope that he can get a fight against superstar Manny Pacquiao, who said earlier this week that he’s a potential option for him.
Crawford isn’t a good option, though, for Pacquiao because the Filipino star revealed that he’s “leaning” in the direction of a fight against former four-division world champion Mikey Garcia.
Thursday’s interaction between Crawford and Porter on Twitter:
Porter: “I’ll be ready in May @terencecrawford.”
Crawford: “??? Just stay on Standby because now you’re trying me.”
Porter: “Closed mouths don’t get fed, and I’m ready to give everybody what they need.”
As you can see, Crawford appears to be less than enthusiastic about a fight against the 33-year-old Porter. Letting Porter know that he’s just a “standby” option is Crawford’s way of letting him know that he’s not someone that he’s eager to face.
This doesn’t surprise me in the least, though, considering that the Omaha, Nebraska native Crawford has never seemed motivated to take on Porter, and you can see why. Porter’s style of inside mauling is a horrible one for Crawford.
Counter-punchers like Crawford need separation from their opponents for him to be able to land his counter shots. When you smother a counter-puncher like Crawford, you take away his ability to land his counter shots and wrecks their whole game.
Crawford has been a counter puncher his entire career, and it’s too late in the game for him to learn how to become a good enough inside brawler to fend off Porter’s attacks.
That’s likely the sole reason why Crawford is unenthusiastic about fighting Porter, seeing that he knows how difficult it’ll be if he faces him. An inside mauler like Porter is the equivalent of kryptonite for Crawford, and it could render him weak, powerless, and helpless.
Crawford will need Porter if Pacquiao fight fails to materialize
Porter will need to stay patient and wait for the inevitable news about Crawford likely failing to get the Pacquiao fight. Once that happens, it’s clear that Crawford will turn to Porter to set up a fight.
The only way Crawford wouldn’t take the fight with Porter is if he has a better fight option against Errol Spence Jr or one of the other PPC fighters.
Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is still hoping he can make the fight with Pacquiao somehow, but it’s not looking good right now. With Crawford’s contract with Top Rank reportedly set to expire in October, Arum must try and put together the Pacquiao fight.
I mean, this might end of the line for Crawford being one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters, so he’s got to give it his all to try and make the fight with the 42-year-old Pacquiao.
Out of all the many years that Arum has promoted Crawford, he’s been unable to get him that big mega-fight that he’d been hoping for.
Errol Spence Jr has shown interest in fighting Crawford, but the fight hasn’t been able to get made because of the disagreement over the purse split. On Wednesday of this week, Spence let Crawford know that the purse split that he’s offering now is 70-30, and it could go to 80-20 soon.
Previously, Spence was offering Crawford a 60-40 split, but understandably, he showed no interest in agreeing to that. Where Spence was coming from in offering Crawford, the lesser split was the fact that he’s a big ticket-seller for his stadium fights in Texas, and he’s also a pay-per-view fighter.