Crawford’s trainer warns Porter KO “real likely”

Terence Crawford’s trainer Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre says a knockout is “real likely” for Bud when he defends his WBO welterweight title on November 20th at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.

BoMac says if Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) doesn’t knock out Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs), then it’ll be a one-sided fight for 12 rounds. He’s scouted Porter well and deemed him as not being a threat to the 34-year-old Crawford.

Given Crawford’s weak resume, it’s impossible to know how he’ll perform against a guy like Porter because there’s no frame of reference.

Crawford has never fought a pressure fighter before during his career, and two, his opposition since moving up to 147 has been lackluster.

Crawford with pressure on him

“He’s looking sharp with still six weeks out,” said BoMac to Fighthype about Crawford. “You can see it in his training [Crawford being energized]. Everybody is pumped for this fight.

“The will and determination to get the job whoever he fights,” said BoMac about Porter. “He’s going to keep coming and keep grinding it out and try to do his thing to get the ring. I love that because that’s going to bring out the best in Terence Crawford.

“He’s going to keep coming until there’s no more fight left in him or the battle is over with. That’s the good thing about Shawn. We already know what type of fight he’s [Porter] going to bring to the table, and I’m excited about it.

“People will criticize him [Crawford] if he doesn’t stop him or beat him in a fashion than those other guys beat him because they all beat him by a split decision. So if Terence knocks him out, everybody is going to be excited about that.

“Everything is important in this fight. Counter-punching, jabs, movement, everything is going to be important in this fight for the simple fact that Shawn likes to do everything well. So you got to make him do things that he doesn’t want to do,” said  BoMac of Porter.

Crawford’s performance against Porter will be measured against Yordenis Ugas, Kell Brook, Errol Spence  Jr., and Keith Thurman. Those guys all beat Porter.

Yeah, I know Ugas technically lost to Porter, but it was viewed as a pure daylight robbery.  Ugas dominated Porter and deserved a comprehensive decision win over him, but being the B-side, he wound up losing.

Crawford will need to stay in the trenches and deal with Porter’s pressure the way Spence did by going to war with him.

It won’t be a good idea for Crawford to run around the ring sticking his tongue out at Porter the way he did in his fight with Viktor Postol.

Crawford was booed by the fans for his safety-first approach to the Postol fight, who is arguably his most formidable opponent to date.

Porter being used as a test case

“His mind, his trainer, his dad, that’s a great f*** team. Terence’s IQ,” said BoMac on what makes Crawford great. “Everybody knows what makes Terence great. He gets them out of there.

“I believe PBC and those guys over there, they wanted to push Shawn up on the chopping block to see how they’re going to do as far as the fight going to go and all aspects of the game, from the pay-per-view all the way down to the promotional part,” said BoMac when asked why the Crawford-Porter fight is happening but not the Errol Spence vs. Crawford clash.

“If everything goes well, which I know it will, they’re going to push Spence up there. It [Crawford vs. Spence] could have life, him or [Yordenis]  Ugas. Them are the two over there [PBC] that have the belts.

“That’s one of Terence’s goals to be the undisputed champion. It all depends on what the game plan is after the Porter fight,” BoMac said when asked if the immediate goal for Crawford is to try and become the undisputed 147-lb champion,” BoMac said.

BoMac might be right about ‘Showtime’ Porter being used as a test case for PBC to make sure Crawford is popular enough to bring in a ton of PPV buys.

If Crawford vs. Porter brings in over  1 million pay-per-view buys, it’s safe to say that we could soon see Errol Spence Jr. facing Terence.

Of course, Crawford would need to be victorious against Porter for the chance of Spence fighting him.

Crawford didn’t bring in a lot of PPV buys for his fight with Amir Khan, and he didn’t do a great job of attracting interest in his last fight with Kell Brook.

Spence is famous enough on his own to where he doesn’t need to fight Crawford to bring in a lot of PPV buys.

Porter:  Crawford likely to KO Porter

“That’s real likely,” said BoMac about Crawford getting a knockout of Porter. “He stopped the last 10 or 11? That was the last one to go the distance,” BoMac said of Viktor Postol being the last one to go the 12 round distance with Crawford in 2016.

“We don’t go in there trying to knock people out,  but if it’s there, we’re in shape to go get it. I say it’s going to be a great fight. If the knockout is there, we’re going to go get it.

“I can’t say Fight of The Year, but it might be a little bit more one-sided.  It’s going to be a tough fight in the beginning. But I think after a while, with adjustments being made, it’s going to be a one-sided fight.

“If you miss out, you’re going to miss one of the best performances of Terence Crawford’s career to this day.

“He’s already better than Canelo. It’s real simple,” said BoMac about Crawford.

It will be challenging for Crawford to knockout Porter because he’s likely to keep the action in close on the inside, and Terence isn’t a great fighter in close.

Crawford is a counter puncher, who needs space to work, and all his power is generated from medium to long distance.

If Porter smothers Crawford’s work, as Andre Ward used to do to his opponents, it might force him to get on his bike.

Crawford obviously won’t score a knockout if he’s on the move all night. He might get booed loudly by the fans at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, but he definitely won’t knock Porter out if he’s moving.

The problem that Crawford has is a lack of experience during his career against B+ to A-level opposition. Most of the guys Crawford has fought have been B- to C-level fighters.

Crawford’s best opposition:

• Viktor Postol
• Yuriorkis Gamboa
• Jeff Horn
• Amir Khan – shot
• Kell Brook – shot
• Egidijus Kavaliauskas
• Jose Benavidez Jr
• Thomas Dulorme
• Raymundo Beltran