By Chris Williams: Showtime Shawn Porter is moving on, and giving up on trying to set up a fight against Terence Crawford after having invested a lot of time in that useless endeavor.
Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) says he believes WBO welterweight champion Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) is working on a big fight, which is why he chose not to fight him.
It’s common knowledge that Crawford has been pining away for a fight against 42-year-old Manny Pacquiao, but it’s still unclear if that match will happen. Like Porter, Crawford may be wasting his time as well.
In hindsight, the 33-year-old Porter admits that he went about trying to get the fight against Crawford the wrong way by calling him ut and hoping he would show interest.
Porter wishes he’d just confronted Crawford, 33, to determine if he was interested in fighting him. It was pretty clear to Chris Williams that Crawford had absolutely zero interest in fighting Porter from day one.
You could tell from looking at Crawford’s body language when asked about Porter that he no intention of fighting him. When asked about fighting Porter, Crawford showed no signs of wanting that clash.
It’s understandable, though, Porter’s mugging style would take away Crawford’s counter-punching, hand speed, and movement.
Porter would be the equivalent of super glue, and Crawford would be trapped and unable to anything. Crawford likely realized that which is why he likely chose not to take the fight.
Porter giving up on Crawford
“My team for some time has been saying, ‘Move forward,’ but I’ve been keeping my eyes and my heart on a possible fight with Terence Crawford,” said Porter to Boxing Social.
“Recently, my dad said, ‘You’ve got to let that go, you’ve got to get back in the ring. You’ve got to stay busy.‘
“Other people in the team are saying, ‘Right now, you’re letting on fighter [Crawford] from allowing you to make money and support your family. So you can’t do that anymore,'” Porter said.
It won’t be surprising if Crawford winds up with nothing to show for all the time he’s spent trying to get the fight with Pacquiao. If you’re Crawford, you need to start thinking about getting back in the ring for a title defense of his WBO belt. Crawford has great options for fights against these guys:
- Vergil Ortiz Jr
- Mikey Garcia
- David Avanesysan
- Jaron Ennis
All the time Porter invested in trying to fight with Crawford resulted in him fighting only once in 2020 and missing out on a payday. Porter hasn’t fought in 2021, and by the time he does fight in July, half the year will be gone.
Depending on the amount of punishment Porter takes in his July match, it’s possible he could return to the ring before the end of the year in December. Porter doesn’t need to fight just once in 2021 as he did in 2020 because he’ll be missing out on another payday.
July being targeted for Shawn Porter’s next fight
“Now, we’re moving forward and looking at early July,” said Porter about his plans for his next fight. “The opponent, we really don’t know right now.
“It doesn’t look like anything is going to shake out with Terence Crawford or Errol Spence Jr, so we’ll see what happens.
“In retrospect, I really do feel like I went about it the wrong way. I started to listen to the noise and perpetuated the noise instead of going to Terence once again and confronting him about a possible fight.
“I thought voicing that I wanted to fight him was going to do what needed to be done, but that wasn’t it.
“I think he’s [Crawford] working on something big, and it was really smart of him not to let go of that until it’s done.
“If anyone is saying that Terence Crawford is ducking Shawn Porter or Errol Spence Jr, you have to also take into account what he’s doing for himself.
“I think he’s trying to line himself up for something big, and he doesn’t want to let that opportunity slip by.
“That’s me verbalizing that I understand the lack of communication from him where a fight with me may come in.
“He may be working on something that is bigger, and I have to respect him for that,” said Porter.
It’ll be interesting to see who Porter’s management finds for him to fight in July. A rematch with Yordenis Ugas would be ideal for Porter to clear up the controversy over their fight in 2019.
