The WBO has ordered Terence Crawford to defend his welterweight title against Shawn Porter next and they have 30 days to bang out a deal to avert a purse bid on February 20th. However, it’s believed that Top Rank won’t be able to negotiate a deal in time to prevent the purse bid from taking place.
According to Lance Pugmire, a purse bid will take place and Premier Boxing Champions, the management for Porter and the next likely promoter for the unbeaten Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) will win the bid to be the ones that stage the fight.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum probably won’t take the huge risk of paying out a ton of money for the Crawford vs. Porter fight without having a good idea of whether it’ll bring in enough pay-per-view revenue to cover the costs of the purses. Even if Arum loses the purse bid, he’ll be able to get his cut of the pie for whoever does win the bid.
Crawford, 33, has brought in low PPV numbers in his two fights on pay-perv-view during his career against Viktor Postol and Amir Khan. Porter has many boxing fans, but he’s not a superstar that he would need to be to guarantee the success of a fight between him and Crawford.
It’ll be interesting to see if Matchroom Boxing/DAZN or Triller put in a substantial bid to stage the fight.
“Insiders telling me the expectation is that Terence Crawford and ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter winds up being won as a purse bid by Premier Boxing, the likely future home for Crawford because the fighters there (including Errol Spence Jr.) are more tantalizing,” said Lance Pugmire @PugBoxing.
It makes sense for PBC to try and win the purse bid if they’re serious about signing Crawford to a contract.
This would be a good advertising tool for future fights between Crawford, Errol Spence Jr, Danny Garcia, Yordenis Ugas, and Keith Thurman. With that said, it’s going to be bad for PBC if Crawford loses to Porter, especially if it’s a knockout loss.
“I’ve been begging for a real challenge for years,” said Terence Crawford to ESPN. “All the so-called elite welterweights have shown no interest in fighting me.
“Now one of them is finally forced to,” said Crawford about Shawn Porter.
Crawford is forgetting that last March, Porter called him out and he got testy and told him to wait. It was pretty obvious at the time that Crawford wasn’t interested in fighting Porter. So when Crawford says that the “so-called elite welterweights” not showing interest in fighting him, that’s not true.
“I’ll show once again why I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Be ready,” said Crawford in getting carried away with himself.
The hate for Crawford is real…..if Crawford gets KO…who has porter even ko who has he ever even buzzed or hurt he hit formella with everything even the kitchen sink and formella was never buzzed
I’m just glad he finally fighting a top 147 lbs fighter, because I heard that he might fight Zepeda (140 lbs) or David Asanyden. Porter will be a great fight for Crawford and it will help him be remembered in a more positive light. To be the best you have to fight the best in that division.