By Chris Williams: Earlier this week the WBO ordered WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford to defend his belt against Shawn Porter, but it’s still unknown whether this fight will transpire.
Crawford has NEVER shown any sign of wanting to fight Porter, and you can see why. Porter is an inside crowder, and he’s someone that is a nightmare for counter-punchers like Crawford, who needs space for him to land his counter shots.
All the switching stances that Crawford does, he won’t be able to use that against Porter because he’ll be on him like glue, not allowing enough separation for Terence to make his needless changes of stance.
Why would Crawford want to rock the boat?
Crawford, 33, has had a good thing going for him for the last thirteen years, fighting B & C level competition fed to him by his promoters at Top Rank.
It’s been smoke & mirrors with Crawford, being fed stiffs by his promoters to make him look better than he actually is.
It’s kind of like an NFL team being matched against 8-8 teams, and the casual fans, who have no clue on what’s going on, rave about how great this team is.
We’ve been seeing the same exact thing with Crawford. He’s been making good money fighting the likes of Amir Khan, Jeff Horn, Kell Brook, John Molina Jr, Julius Indongo, and Egidijus Kavaliauskas.
Crawford looks satisfied with the good money that he’s making fighting those types of opposition. Look at it this way.
Crawford is capable of holding onto his WBO welterweight title well into his 40s with the way Top Rank is matching him, and he doesn’t have to take any risks.
Crawford is getting millions every time he fights, and it’s great for him. But now that Crawford is being asked to defend against Porter, that’s a DANGEROUS fight for him because the gravy train could come to a screeching halt if he loses.
All those millionaire dollar paydays could come to an abrupt stop for Crawford if he gets knocked out and exposed by Porter.
Hence, Chris Williams sees Crawford finding a way to slide out of the Porter match to avoid what could be a career-ender.
Porter was given the brush off
One hint that this fight WON’T happen is Crawford recently letting Porter, 33, know that he needed to back off when he was calling him out. Crawford told Porter that he was trying his patience and that he needed to be on standby. In others, get lost.
The World Boxing Organization is giving Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) and Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) until August 20th to hammer out a deal before they order a purse bid.
It’s no secret that Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum hasn’t shown a lot of interest in making the fight between Bud and Porter. We all heard the million offer that Arum is said to have made to Porter, who clearly got more than that to fight Errol Spence Jr in 2019.
Arum wanted to match Crawford against Manny Pacquiao, which would have been a great way to end his contract with Top Rank. If Crawford does choose to leave Top Rank at the end of the year, he would have been going out with a bang if he’d fought Manny.
Unfortunately for Arum, the Pacquiao vs. Crawford fight fell through. Recently, we heard that 140-lb contender Jose Zepeda was in the running for Crawford’s next title defense.
But as of last week, David Avanesyan was the guy that would have been Crawford’s next challenger, and he may still if the negotiations with Porter fail to produce a fight.
“I’ve been begging for a real challenge for years,” said Crawford to Mike Coppinger of ESPN. “All the so-called elite welterweights have shown no interest in fighting me. Now one of them is finally being forced to.
“I’ll show once again why I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Be ready,” said Crawford.
If Crawford was really begging to fight the elites, he would have taken the fight with Porter YEARS ago rather than fighting guys like Brook, Khan, Horn, and Jose Benavidez Jr.
We’re likely going to see Porter facing Keith Thurman next and Crawford defending against David Avanesyan. Once Porter recognizes that Crawford has no serious interest in fighting him, he’ll wash his hands of him and move on and face Thurman in a rematch.