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The good part about being able to easily make welterweight is that Terence Crawford figured time was on his side to land a big fight.
It took for Shawn Porter to step up and accept the challenge to bring that vision to life for Crawford, with the two due to collide November 20 on ESPN+ Pay-Per-View from Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. It wasn’t the first choice of opponent for the switch-hitting, three-division and reigning WBO welterweight titlist. In fact, it was a fight that the two friends—outside the ring—frequently discussed as a failsafe in the event a bigger opportunity wasn’t already secured.
A lack of feasible options left Crawford to revisit this fight. Aiding the cause, he believes, is the willingness of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) to deliver Porter as the first welterweight to ‘cross the street.
It comes after years of Crawford unsuccessfully securing fights with the likes of Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia and other top welterweights under the PBC banner. Porter’s reputation for taking on all comers makes him the perfect fit to test Crawford, if not serve as a gauge for how the unbeaten Omaha, Nebraska native would fare against the rest of the roster.
“When Shawn called me about the fight (in 2020), it was agreed upon by both of us that it would be on our terms,” Crawford noted during a recent Zoom media conference call to discuss the upcoming PPV event. “I feel like he got caught up in the media, everyone saying, ‘Oh, you should fight Terence.’ I feel like they (PBC) were using him as a steppingstone to see how me and Shawn fight go, comparing me and Errol [Spence’s] performances against him.
“At that time, I was already in talks with Manny Pacquiao, to fight Manny Pacquiao. I told him that I got something on the table. If that fight doesn’t happen, me and you can happen if that’s what you really want to do. The Manny Pacquiao fight didn’t happen so we here now.”
Pacquiao and Spence remained the targets for Crawford (37-0, 28KOs) even before moving up from junior welterweight. Crawford pursued a showdown with Pacquiao (62-8-2, 39KOs) since 2015, when he was still an unbeaten WBO junior welterweight title prior to fully unifying the division.
A superfight with Spence has been coveted by the media since Crawford’s official arrival at welterweight in June 2018. A ninth-round knockout of unbeaten Jeff Horn saw Crawford become a three-division titlist, having previously enjoyed lineal championship reigns at lightweight and junior welterweight. Four successful defenses of the WBO welterweight title have followed, though none against the division’s elite talents.
Conversely, Porter (31-3-1, 17KOs) boasts by far the strongest resume among today’s welterweights.
The former two-time titlist has suffered losses only to unbeaten opposition—Kell Brook to end his first title reign in 2014, narrowly to Keith Thurman in a bid to wrest the WBA title and to Spence in their terrific WBC/IBF unification bout in September 2019. Wins over Garcia, Yordenis Ugas, Devon Alexander and Paul Malignaggi spread out over two title reigns have strengthened Porter’s place among the division’s top talents.
Crawford can only hope the upcoming fight is the first of many more to come at the weight. For now, it’s a chance to validate his own claim as the best welterweight in the world after having to settle for passing the eye test absent a top-shelf matchup in his three-plus year stay at the weight.
“I’ve been calling for these top welterweights since I came in the division,” notes Crawford, who has been out of the ring since a fourth-round stoppage of Brook last November. “There was nothing really I could do. We just had to bide our time, be patient.
“Now we’re here. Shawn Porter is the one who I have in front of me. This is the fight I have for November 20th.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox