LAS VEGAS – The last thing Terence Crawford wanted to do when he came down the stairs from a makeshift stage Wednesday was answer more questions.
Crawford had just appeared on Max Kellerman’s boxing show. That followed approximately 10 minutes with a group of reporters after his final press conference with Shawn Porter and a satellite television tour that lasted nearly one hour.
The unbeaten WBO welterweight champion was all talked out three days in advance of the type of fight Crawford has wanted for the past three years. Crawford insisted, though, that he doesn’t view his showdown with Porter, undoubtedly his toughest test as a welterweight, as an opportunity to silence skeptics who’ve continually questioned his greatness.
“I’m not looking forward to shutting anybody up,” Crawford told BoxingScene.com. “I’m just looking forward to going out there and doing what I do best – that’s fighting, getting the win and going back home to my family.”
A healthy return to his family in Omaha obviously is Crawford’s most important mission Saturday night. Still, the defiant fighter who prides himself on being unapologetically authentic wasn’t exactly being forthright.
Alpha dogs don’t take kindly to detractors dismissing their accomplishments. In Crawford’s case, when an ultimate competitor spends almost all his life proving his superiority over his contemporaries, only to have a flippant faction of fans and media demean what he has done, there’s simply no way Saturday will be just another night at the proverbial office for him.
This isn’t just Crawford’s fifth defense of the WBO belt he won by battering Jeff Horn in June 2018. This is his opportunity to prove what he established in the first two divisions in which he won world titles, that he is a level above even the top competition.
Errol Spence Jr. was his preferred opponent, and reasonable cases can be made for whomever you want to blame for their fight failing to materialize. But this is the next best thing – Crawford faced with the opponent that undoubtedly gave Spence the toughest fight of his nine-year pro career just two years ago.
“This fight means a lot for me,” Crawford said. “Been a lot of talk around town that I can’t keep up with the other welterweights on the other side [PBC]. And, you know, this is the time to prove my [place] in the welterweight division.”
If Crawford were to beat Porter more definitively than Spence, who won a split decision over him in September 2019, it would strengthen Crawford’s argument for being boxing’s best welterweight. A clear victory over Porter also might mean he’ll never face Spence, which lends even more meaning to opposing Porter.
There’s no guarantee Crawford-Spence ever occurs, thus this could stand as Crawford’s division-defining fight at 147 pounds. Nothing about it figures to be easy, either.
Porter has lost three times, but the odds on their ESPN Pay-Per-View main event seem entirely too wide. As of Thursday night, BetMGM Sportsbook listed Crawford as a 7-1 favorite in a fight that’ll headline a four-fight pay-per-view show available exclusively through ESPN+ ($69.99; 9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT).
Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) is a tougher out than that for anyone in the welterweight division, Crawford included. The former IBF and WBC welterweight champion might not have the prettiest style, but his relentless pressure, physicality and strength should challenge Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) to fight at more of a demanding pace than Crawford would prefer.
Egidijus Kavaliauskas isn’t as durable or skilled as Porter, but he had success early when he pressed Crawford. Porter, and countless others, are certain that the Lithuanian contender should’ve been credited with what would still stand as the only knockdown of Crawford’s career in the third round of their December 2019 bout at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Every boxer, no matter how great, experiences some moments of vulnerability. It was Crawford’s response to Kavaliauskas’ success that really resonates, though.
That consequential sequence in the third round brought out the junkyard dog in Crawford that he most memorably displayed in a prior fight when Yuriorkis Gamboa buzzed him early in the ninth round of their lightweight championship match in June 2014. Crawford quickly recovered and dismantled Gamboa by dropping him twice more and stopping him late in that same ninth round.
Seven years later, Gamboa’s brief moment of success in that ninth round remains a frame of reference for those that claim Crawford’s resume isn’t commensurate with his pound-for-pound status.
“It’s always gonna be, you know, critics,” Crawford said. “They the ones that, you know, make you who you are, because they motivate me. But at the same time, you know, they never gonna give me credit until, you know, somebody else start giving you credit and everybody else start praising you for the things that you do. … I look at most of the critics, you know, they don’t even know too much about boxing. They just, you know, go on what the next person sayin’ or what they read and what they hear. They not goin’ on they own boxing knowledge, so I don’t really too much bother to care what critics say or how they view me and how they rate me.”
They can all agree at least that, come Saturday night, Porter will be the most proven opponent Crawford will have faced in six welterweight title fights. He has beaten three undefeated fighters in 147-pound bouts – Horn (then 18-0-1), Jose Benavidez Jr. (then 27-0) and Kavaliauskas (then 21-0-1) – but both Brits he beat, Amir Khan and Kell Brook, were considered faded fighters when they encountered Crawford.
Porter lost a majority decision, and his IBF belt, to Brook in May 2014, though Brook was unbeaten and in his prime then. His only other losses were a close unanimous decision to Keith Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs, 1 NC) in one of the best action fights of 2016 and his split-decision defeat to Spence (27-0, 21 KOs).
“It’ll show everybody what everybody been talking about for a long time, you know, I’m one of the best fighters in the world,” Crawford said. “Me beating Shawn Porter is gonna prove it.”
The 34-year-old Crawford figures the most pessimistic segment of his naysayers will find fault with even a convincing victory versus Porter, who also has been presented with a high-profile opportunity to enhance his legacy. The three-division champion expects them to point to Porter’s three losses, especially Spence’s win over him, and the remaining welterweight challenges, from young and older opponents, that await Crawford.
Regardless, even the most cynical boxing fans should take 36 minutes or less to enjoy the type of welterweight fight we’ve wanted for Crawford for the past three years. It’s not Crawford-Spence, but it’s the next best thing, a fascinating chance to finally find out more of what we want to know about Terence Crawford.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
