By Chris Williams: Less than 300 tickets remain for the Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford vs. Shawn Porter fight 16 days from now on November 20th at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
The fight being on the verge of a sellout suggests that it could bring in a significant amount of pay-per-view buys on ESPN+ on the night.
For WBO welterweight champion Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs), it would be his first successful PPV event, as he did poor numbers on his first two attempts on pay-per-view against Viktor Postol and Amir Khan.
Crawford should thank the WBO
In hindsight, it was a wacky idea for Crawford to fight those two guys on PPV rather than fighters that U.S boxing fans were willing to pay to see.
Crawford needs to give the World Boxing Organization some thanks for their decision to order him to defend against #2 WBO because if they hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have fought him.
Up until the sanctioning body ordered Bud to fight Porter, Top Rank was reportedly going to have Crawford defend against #6 WBO David Avanesyan next.
That would have been a good fight, but Top Rank couldn’t have put that on pay-per-view in the U.S and sold it the way they’re doing with the Porter fight.
Porter talks about Crawford’s reluctance
“When we’re talking about Bud [Crawford], my calls and text messages started going unanswered by the early part of this year,” said Shawn Porter to Fighthype.
“I felt like the point where this fight really started to be talked about, and the fight was beginning to be made, and those text messages and phone calls weren’t getting answered is because he [Crawford] had to get his mind to a certain place,” said Porter in failing to point out that the WBO forced the issue by ordering the fight.
If not for the WBO ordering Crawford to defend against Porter, the fight wouldn’t have happened. It was ONLY because the WBO ordered Crawford to face Porter that the battle is now happening, so Shawn has got things mixed up in his head.
As Porter mistakenly believes, it had nothing to do with Crawford needing to “get his mind to a certain place.”
Crawford is fighting Porter because the WBO ordered the fight, and Bud wasn’t about to vacate his title by refusing the battle.
Porter wants Crawford to do his part
“Bud, you better show up and show out. I am,” said Porter about Crawford needing to help sell their November 20th fight.
“I know that Bud is going to give the energy required, and if he doesn’t, I know these people at least are going to try to pull it out of him.
“They’re trying to get me and Bud to mirror one another. So if you see me any difference in the energy, you’ll know I was doing my thug thizzle, and Bud didn’t show up and do his half, but I have no doubt he’ll make it work,” said Porter.
