Terence Crawford expected to ink with PBC; Shawn Porter fight to go to purse bid

By Boxing News - 07/23/2021 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) could soon sign with PBC after his contract expires with Top Rank following his title defense against Shawn Porter in the coming months.

The WBO has ordered Crawford to defend his 147-lb belt against mandatory Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) next, and PBC is expected to win the purse bid to show the fight on SHOWTIME or FOX.

For Crawford to sign with PBC, he’s likely going to need to beat Porter, look sensational in doing so, and bring in a lot of PPV buys.

If Crawford fails to do these things, PBC will probably pass on the idea of inking Crawford. Why would they sign him? If Crawford can’t beat Porter, PBC doesn’t need him. Likewise, poor PPV numbers will DOOM Crawford because he’s WBO champion and A-side and Porter just the challenger/B-side opponent.

PBC will obviously decide whether to sign Crawford based on his PPV numbers and how well he does. I mean, if Crawford loses to Porter, PBC is probably not going to want to waste their money signing the aging 33-year-old, who be turning 34 on September 28th.

Image: Terence Crawford expected to ink with PBC; Shawn Porter fight to go to purse bid

“Insiders telling me the expectation is that Terence Crawford – Showtime Shawn Porter winds up being won as a purse bid by Premier Boxing, the likely future home for Crawford because the fighters there (including Erro Spence Jr.) are more tantalizing,” said Lance Pugmire @Pugboxing.

PBC could be making a BIG mistake if they sign Crawford, believing they can turn the aging welterweight into a star.

The company already has Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Yordenis Ugas, Shawn Porter, and Errol Spence Jr.  The only star out of that bunch is Spence. Garcia, Thurman, and Porter haven’t been struggling to get fights lately.

If Crawford signs with PBC, the only guy out of that bunch that would likely fight him is Spence, and he’ll surely beat him. Losing to Spence will erode what little popularity that Crawford has. We don’t even know if Crawford will beat Porter. Chris Williams sees Crawford losing that fight and losing badly.

The only way Crawford wins is if he spoils by clinching Porter all night long the same way Kell Brook did when he beat ‘Showtime’ Shawn in an UGLY fight in 2014.

Brook got away with murder with all the holding that he did against Porter. The referee should either penalized or disqualified him for the nonstop holding. Unless Crawford holds all night against Porter, he’s going to take a beating and lose.

Will PBC want to sign Crawford after an ugly win over Porter? I doubt it. But even if they do, Crawford could languish with PBC, not getting the fights he thought he would against Keith Thurman or Danny Garcia.

Image: Terence Crawford expected to ink with PBC; Shawn Porter fight to go to purse bid

Yeah, Crawford will get the fight with Spence, but he would have gotten that match even if he’d stayed with Top Rank. Spence wants Crawford’s WBO title, and he’s willing to cross the pond to get it.

Crawford doesn’t need to sign with PBC to get a fight against Spence because that match will happen anyway unless Bud asks for too big of a purse split. If Crawford digs his feet into the sand, insisting on a 50-50 split with Spence, it won’t matter if he’s signed with PBC or not. He’s not going to get the fight with Spence.

Crawford’s current promoter Top Rank is likely not to put in a huge bid to stage the Porter fight, knowing that they could potentially lose money after paying the purses.

Although Crawford is rated highly on the pound-for-pound rankings, he’s not been able to transfer that into becoming a PPV guy. As such, Bob Arum of Top Rank probably won’t put in a huge bid to stage the Crawford vs. Porter fight on ESPN PPV and wind up getting burned when it fails to bring in huge numbers.

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For fans that haven’t followed welterweights from the past, they’re usually pretty well past their prime by the time they hit 34. Crawford might be a little more preserved, only because he’s not been matched against quality fighters. Given how Top Rank has matched Crawford, they’ve minimized the punishment that he’s had to take.

Crawford’s best opponents during his 13-year pro career were against Jose Benavidez Jr, Kell Brook, Viktor Postol, and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Brook and Gamboa were talented fighters during their primes, but they were passed by when they fought Crawford.

For comparison’s sake, these are the fighters that boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard had fought during his career when he reached Crawford’s current age of 33.

Sugar Ray Leonard’s fights by the age of 33:

  • Roberto Duran
  • Tommy Hearns
  • Marvin Hagler
  • Terry Norris
  • Wilfred Benitez
  • Donny Lalonde

Leonard had a great resume by the time he was Crawford’s age, and I don’t see how PBC is going to be able to do anything different from what Top Rank did.

Besides, the guys that have been PBC’s top welterweights all these years are now getting long in the tooth themselves. Porter is 33, Thurman 32, Ugas 34, and Danny Garcia is 33.

Crawford might not like what he finds when or if he signs with PBC. All those great fights that could have happened years ago, it’s too late now.

So if Crawford does sign with PBC, he needs to look at their entire stable of welterweights to get a clearer picture of who he’ll be facing. It’s foolish if Crawford thinks he’s going to fight all the fading welterweights in PBC’s stable because it will not happen.

Even if Crawford did fight them all, they’re past it, all of them except for Spence, and he might even be facing. Spence looked like 80% of what he used to be in his first fight coming off his terrible car crash in 2019.

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“’I’m sure (Crawford-Porter) will happen, too, because I have been working underground,’” @PacoValcarcel said. “Sometimes, you can’t work publicly. You work behind the scenes to get the result. It’s one of the best fights we can have now. Everybody wants to see this fight,'” said Lance Pugmire @PugBoxing.

“I’ve been begging for a real challenge for years,” said Crawford to ESPN. “I’ll show once again why I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Be ready.”

Crawford can’t be the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing because his resume is so incredibly poor that you have to exclude him entirely from the top 10.

He’s got one of those resumes that you often see from fighters carefully managed by their promoters to trick the casual boxing fans.

There’s literally NOBODY on Crawford’s entire resume that you can point to and say, ‘This guy is good.’ Gamboa is the only guy on Crawford’s resume that had talent, but he was shot when he fought him in 2014. The same goes for Ricky Burns.