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Former welterweight champion Shawn Porter has admitted that he can’t continue to wait for a fight against Terence Crawford to come to fruition.
Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) admitted that he’s moving on from a potential big-time fight against Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) and is instead eyeing a return to the ring later this summer.
“My team for some time has been saying, ‘move forward’ [from Crawford] but I’ve been keeping my eyes and my heart on a possible fight with Terence Crawford,” Porter told Boxing Social. “Recently, my dad [and trainer Kenny Porter] said, ‘you’ve got to let that go, you’ve got to get back in the ring. You’ve got to stay busy.’ Other people in the team are saying, ‘right now, you’re letting [Crawford] from allowing you to make money and support your family. So you can’t do that anymore.’ Now, we’re moving forward and looking at early July. The opponent, we really don’t know right now.”
A potential bout between Porter and Crawford would pit two fighters at the peak of their powers. Both fighters are 33 years old, and Porter would easily present the three-division champion Crawford the toughest test of his 12-year career.
“It doesn’t look like anything is going to shake out with Terence Crawford or Errol Spence Jr. so we’ll see what happens,” said Porter, who dropped a spirited split decision to Spence in 2019.
“In retrospect, I really do feel like I went about it the wrong way. I started to listen to the noise and perpetuated the noise instead of going to Terence once again and confronting him about a possible fight. I thought voicing that I wanted to fight him was going to do what needed to be done, but that wasn’t it. I think [Crawford’s] working on something big, and it was really smart of him not to let go of that until it’s done.”
The big fight Porter alluded to was a potential matchup between Crawford and Manny Pacquiao that never neared the finish line throughout several stages during the pandemic.
“If anyone is saying that Terence Crawford is ducking Shawn Porter or Errol Spence Jr., you have to also take into account what he’s doing for himself,” Porter continued.
“I think he’s trying to line himself up for something big, and he doesn’t want to let that opportunity slip by. That’s me verbalizing that I understand the lack of communication from him where a fight with me may come in. He may be working on something that is bigger, and I have to respect him for that.”
Porter last fought in August and scored a shutout unanimous decision victory over Sebastian Formella.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com