Shawn Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs) was pulled out in the 10th round by his father Kenny Porter after being knocked down twice by WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford (38-0, 20 KOs) in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay.
Porter, 33, looked like he could have continued, but his father Kenny wasn’t taking any chances by pulling him out the way he did. Crawford caught Porter with a big shot that put him down for the first knockdown. Moments later, Crawford dropped Porter for a second time.
With a lot of time left in the round, Crawford would likely have finished off Porter had his dad not stopped the fight. It would have been nice to find out, though, because fans will speculate that Porter could have made it out of the round.
Shawn was tired by that point in the fight, and Crawford would have been in great shape to dominate the 11th, and 12th had it gone on.
The fight was halted at 1:21 of the 10th. Crawford was up on the cards by the scores 86-85, 86-85, and 87-84.
Errol Spence Jr., who was in the audience, opted not to enter the ring to call out Crawford. That’s a bad sign.
You can interpret that to mean that IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) has no interest in fighting Crawford.
The way Crawford looked tonight, Spence would have had a real chance of either outboxing or overpowering him with his offense. Crawford looked very beatable until Porter gassed out.
Tonight’s fight didn’t live up to its expectations, as it wasn’t the most entertaining fight. Crawford is starting to show his age at 34; he was missing a lot with his punches.
This isn’t the same Crawford from years ago because this is a guy that he should have dominated if he were worthy of the #1 pound-for-pound ranking that he’s been talking about wanting.
You can argue that both Spence and Yordenis Ugas did a better job against Porter than Crawford, apart from the premature stoppage. Crawford had problems with the roughhouse tactics and the inside fighting ability of Porter.
Unlike Spence, Crawford didn’t attempt to beat Porter at his own game by standing in the trenches and battling him on the inside.
That would have been interesting if Crawford had chosen to slug with Porter, but he doesn’t have the inside fighting ability that Spence possesses. Porter would have eaten Crawford up on the inside, so it’s a good thing that Bud didn’t try out-tough him like Spence.
Undercard results:
Esquiva Falcao TD 6 Patrice Volny
Janibek Alimkhanuly TKO 8 Hassan N’Dam
Raymond Muratalla TKO 5 Elias Araujo
