By Sean Jones: WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford says his friendship with Shawn Porter has gone out the window with them fighting in less than a month on November 20th.
Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs0 states that he’s NOT friends with Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs), as far as he’s concerned, while the two are set to fight at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas.
Porter isn’t the type of guy to use his friendship in hopes that Crawford, 34, will take it easy on him inside the ring on November 20th. Shawn wants to win the fight, and he’s going to be going all out to get the victory to take Crawford’s WBO 147-lb title.
If Porter wins, he can take the WBO title and use it as bait to get a lucrative rematch with IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr, who beat him two years ago by a 12 round split decision.
Terence is facing the first high-profile opponent of his long 13-year pro career; we’re going to see if he can hang with Porter. We’ve all heard about how great Crawford is, but his opposition has been less than the best.
Crawford not friends with Porter
“I’m expecting whatever Shawn brings to the table because Shawn can actually box,” said Crawford to Fight Hub TV. “A lot of people don’t think Shawn can box, but I’ve been knowing Shawn for some time now.
“A lot of people been expecting him to come in there and bully me. Maybe he would try to, or maybe he wouldn’t. He would come in and switch it up and try and outbox me and throw me off.
“We’re going to be prepared for whatever Shawn comes into the ring on fight night. I think he’ll try to mix it up in there. Shawn is a smart fighter, and he’s not a newcomer.
“He’s been around the block a few times, and he’s got a lot of experience. I feel like he’s going to utilize that experience to bang when he needs to, box when he needs to, brawl, and so forth.
“I go with the flow. Shawn, he switches here and there as well. That’s the beauty of being a professional. You can adapt to any style of my opponent brings to the table at any given moment.
“We ain’t talking. It’s all set in stone. All that friend stuff is out the window,” said Crawford on him not being friends with Porter during the run-up to their fight.
“Earlier this year,” Crawford said when asked when he last spoke to Porter. “It was cool. Me and Shawn have always been cool.
“We ain’t never had a problem. Once it’s confirmed that we’re fighting, all that other stuff goes out the window. We ain’t friends no more in my eyes,” said Crawford about Porter.
As long as Crawford and Porter don’t take it easy on one another, this should be an entertaining fight for the fans.
Terence believes his skills will decide the fight
“I got good conditioning as well,” Crawford said upon being asked if he was concerned with Porter’s excellent conditioning.
“I feel like my conditioning led to me being successful in my 37 fights as well. So it’s going to be a battle of fitness.
“I think it’s going to come down to my skills and to my ability to adapt and adjust.
“There’s a lot of things I can say about that fight, me not being able to get that fight,” said Crawford on him not being able to get a fight with Manny Pacquiao before he retired.”
“It’s history now, and I don’t dwell over spilled milk. So I’m looking forward to Shawn Porter on November 20th.
“I was supposed to fight him [Pacquiao] in 2015 before him, and Tim Bradley fought. It’s a missed opportunity, but other opportunities are going to surface,” said Crawford in sounding like a glass-half-full type of person.
If Porter’s Plan-A is ineffective, which some boxing fans believe will be him trying to bully Crawford, he’ll be stuck trying to box. Porter won’t do well if he’s forced to try and outbox Crawford to get the victory.
Crawford not worried about Spence
“I’m not worried about Errol[Spence] at all,” said Crawford when asked about his thoughts on not getting a fight with Errol Spence Jr.
“As I said, I got other opportunities out there that don’t involve Errol.
“I’m not even focused on him. There’s a lot of huge fights out there. This [Porter] is a huge fight, and Keith Thurman is a huge fight.
“There’s still another title out there with [Yordenis] Ugas, and he can’t become undisputed either.
“I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and worry about the fights in front of me and so forth,” said Crawford.
Errol Spence Jr. has been through a lot physically lately with his recent eye injury and his terrible car crash in 2019.
It’s pointless for Crawford to worry about Spence when we don’t know if he will come back from his eye injury.