Bob Arum says he just now heard the news on trainer Kenny Porter wanting to get in touch with him to setup a fight between his son Shawn Porter and Terence Crawford. Arum says both he and Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) both like the Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) fight, and he believes it can happen.
It’s unknown Why Arum is just now finding out that Porter and Kenny have been calling Crawford out since his last fight on December 14.
Arum thinks Crawford vs. Porter fight is possible
“When I was coming over here today, I was looking at a website on my Ipad, and Porter’s father asked me to call him so we can workout that fight,” said Arum to IFL TV about a fight between Porter and Crawford. “So that’s all I know about it. I know Crawford wants that fight.
“So if Porter is prepared to go through with that fight, I believe it can happen, yeah. It would be a great fight. Porter showed me something special in the fight with Spence, which could have gone either way,” said Arum.
Is Arum on the level that he’s just now finding out about this or has he known already, and isn’t interested in having Crawford walk the plank against Porter. After all, Crawford is a good money maker or Top Rank. If Crawford fights Porter, the money could dry up if he gets battered and exposed by Showtime Shawn.
Arum might need to get on the same page with his fighter WBO welterweight champion to make sure that he wants to battle Porter, because this week, the Omaha native said that’s a pointless fight. Crawford said Porter isn’t a fight that he’s “focused on right now.”
Here’s what Crawford recently said about NOT wanting to fight Porter:
“That’s not a fight that I’m focused on right now or even worried about,” said Crawford to DAZN about a fight between him and Porter. “I’m focused on other things right now. If we had to fight and if it made sense, then that would be a fight that we would both agree upon. But right now, I feel like that’s not something we should discuss right now, because there’s nothing on the table for me,” said Crawford.
Can Arum convince Crawford to take a risky fight with Porter?
Whether Arum can talk the 32-year-old Crawford into the fight or not is unknown. What we don’t want is Arum to have to drag Crawford kicking and screaming into the fight with Porter if he doesn’t fancy it.
To be sure, Porter would be a monstrous upgrade over the opposition that Crawford has been fighting during his entire 11-year pro career. Perhaps Crawford is more comfortable fighting the likes of Egidijus Kavaliauskas, Amir Khan, Jose Benavidez Jr. and Jeff Horn.
“He did an interview with Fox, and it appears he’s much better than the information that I had,” said Arum on Errol Spence. “He’s a great fighter, and I hope that when he returns, and it looks like he will return, that he can revert to the form that he had before the accident,” said Arum.
Before Spence’s terrible car accident on October 10th, Arum had talked of wanting to put together a fight between him and Crawford in 2020. Both fighters were seemingly willing to make the fight at the time, but now all that is up in the air. Spence needs to come back in 2020, and get a fight or two under his belt before a match between him and Crawford can become a reality.
Ideally, Crawford should take the fight with Porter to show that he deserves a fight with Spence, because right now there’s a lot of question marks about the Top Rank fighter. Crawford looked utterly beatable in his last fight against Kavaliauskas on December 14 in getting knocked down, and hurt several times. After that performance, boxing fans are now looking at Crawford’s weak resume and questioning whether this guy is a product of careful match-making by Top Rank. It happens all the time.
Promoters take a fighter and match them against fluff opposition to make them appear better than they are, and they spout to the media and networks that the fighter is best on the planet. But when they finally are forced to match them against a quality opponent, they end up losing. In Crawford’s case, the only notable name on his resume is former IBF/WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa. He had a big size advantage over Gamboa when they fought in 2014. Even in that fight, Crawford was hurt.
