By Matt Lieberman: A purse bid has been scheduled for the WBO-ordered Terence Crawford vs. Shawn Porter fight for September 2nd in Puerto Rico.
There’s an excellent chance the promoters for the fighters won’t be able to hammer out a deal to avert the purse bid, as Crawford is with Top Rank and Porter with PBC.
That right there tells you all you need to know about how difficult things are to try and get a deal done.
If management for WBO welterweight champion Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) and mandatory challenger Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) hasn’t been made by September 2nd, there will be a purse bid on that date at 12 noon at the World Boxing Organization’s headquarters in Puerto Rico, according to Lance Pugmire.
There’s still much doubt among boxing fans that the Crawford vs. Porter fight will happen. Many people believe in the end; Porter will walk away from the negotiations and choose to fight one of the PBC welterweights rather than face Crawford.
There’s no chance Crawford will vacate his WBO 147-lb title because that’s the only pawn that he has to try and lure Errol Spence Jr, Keith Thurman, or Manny Pacquiao to fight him.
Given Pacquiao’s loss to Yordenis Ugas last Saturday, you can scratch him off the list as potential future options for Crawford. Ugas is now an option for Crawford, but we’re more likely to see Spence facing the Cuban fighter.
Former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Porter would be a big step up in talent for Crawford, as he’s been kind of left out in the cold by the top welterweights in the division.
Crawford is an excellent fighter, but you just don’t know how talented he is because he’s not been fighting the A-level fighters since he moved up to 147. He’s been fighting B-level fighters, some of which didn’t rate a world title shot.
Porter can’t afford to lose this fight because he’s running out of opportunities. He lost to Errol Spence Jr in 2019, and he’s also been beaten by Keith Thurman and Kell Brook.
You can also say Porter should have had a loss to Yordenis Ugas in his controversial 12 round split decision win over the Cuban fighter in March 2019.
Had the judges got that right, Porter would be coming into his fight with Crawford with two defeats in his last three contests. Of course, Porter wouldn’t be ranked #2 with the World Boxing Organization with a record like that. There wouldn’t be a title shot opportunity for Porter.