Terence Crawford’s hoped-for June 5th fight against superstar boxer Manny Pacquiao is now off the table after the investors from UAE reportedly failed to up with the $50 million to make it happen.
Crawford could now be finally facing his #1 WBO contender ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter, in a fight that the boxing public has a high interest in seeing.
Fans have been telling Crawford for months to give up on his hopeless dream of a fight with Pacquiao, and instead focus on the fight that CAN be made against Porter. But Crawford wasn’t willing to listen, and now he’s burned through five months without fighting.
After years of being in the same stable as Pacquiao at Top Rank, you’d think that Crawford would have learned by now that the fight will NEVER happen.
Unlike the 42-year-old Pacquiao, the 33-year-old Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) is still in his prime and will have a better than average chance of beating the Top Rank promoted fighter.
Interestingly, Crawford hasn’t been eager to take the fight with Porter, and some believe that he doesn’t like the idea of being crowded, roughed up, and forced to fight on the inside for 12 grueling rounds.
Crawford is a switch-hitting counter puncher, who likes to fight on the outside, and he’s largely been matched against fringe-level fighters during his 13-year pro career.
Porter will make it a much different type of fight than Crawford is accustomed to, and he may not be able to handle that type of grueling inside war.
But even if Crawford does somehow beat Porter, he’s going to be forced to take more punishment in this fight than he ever has before.
If you saw the damage that Kell Brook did to Crawford’s face in just three rounds last November, it’s easy to predict that the Nebraska native’s face is going to be a mess by the second half of the fight with Porter.
That’s if Crawford doesn’t try and squirm out of the fight with Porter. With Porter being Crawford’s mandatory, he can’t avoid him for too much longer without being stripped of his title by the World Boxing Organisation.
With months spent trying to get the fight with Pacquiao, Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) was left high and dry with nothing to show for his time. He now has to get back in the ring soon otherwise, he’ll miss out on a payday.
Crawford, 33, hasn’t fought since his fourth-round shellacking of Kell Brook last November, and he’s going to need a high-quality opponent if he wants to bring in the fans for his next fight.
If Crawford wants to fight twice in 2021, he’s going to need to have Top Rank find him an opponent soon for the summer. Porter is already waiting there without a fight scheduled, so he’s the obvious choice.
Other options for Crawford’s next fight:
- Vergil Ortiz Jr
- David Avanesyan
- Jaron Ennis
- Josesito Lopez
- Mikey Garcia
- Danny Garcia
- Keith Thurman