Shawn Porter keeps it real on Terence Crawford

By Chris Williams

Boxingnews24.com

Last Saturday night, WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter (30-2-1, 17 KOs) won a grueling 12 round split decision over Yordenis Ugas (23-4, 11 KOs) at the Dignity Health Sports Park, in Carson, California. It wasn’t one of the better performance’s we’ve seen from ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter. He barely scraped by in winning a close decision.

After the fight, one of the media members mentioned WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford’s name, and it resulted in Porter talking away about him for two minutes instead of keeping it real about his fight with Ugas. You could tell fro listening to Porter talk, that he wants to fight Crawford in the worst way.

It almost appeared like Porter was trying to change the subject from it being about him, because a lot media were asking him continual questions about the controversy surrounding his ‘win’ over Ugas. Large portions of the boxing world saw Porter losing to Ugas, and getting a gift decision. Although Porter insisted that he won easy, the fact is he didn’t. It looked like he was gifted a decision in the eyes of the fans. The scores were 116-112, 115-113 for Porter, and 117-111 for Ugas. You an argue that the score closer to what actually took place inside the ring was the 117-111 score for Ugas.

“Myself and Terence. If that fight gets made it’s going to be because myself and Terence want that fight to get made,” Porter said. “I’m not calling him out. I respect him. I’m not afraid of him. He’s definitely overlooked in the welterweight division, and definitely one of the best fighters out there in the world,” Porter said.

Porter not calling Crawford out seemed to some like he’s scared of him. If Porter was going to spend a significant portion of his post-fight time with the media singing the praises of Porter, then he might as well have called him out. It’s pretty obvious that Porter wants to fight Crawford. However, the fight might not be worth anything in the future if Porter faces Errol Spence Jr. and gets obliterated by him like a lot of boxing fans think will happen. Porter wants to fight Spence next, and he plans on attending his fight next Saturday night at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Porter wants to enter the ring AFTER the fight, and call the winner put on while all the attention is on them. Porter thinks that he’ll be allowed into the ring so that he can get in the face of the winner and challenge him in front of the fans watching ringside and at home. If Porter does that, hopefully underneath his eyes has decreased by then. If Porter is still beaten up looking like he was last Saturday night after his fight with Yordenis, he might be taken seriously by boxing fans if he enters the ring to call out Spence or Mikey Garcia.t

“I think it’s going to be a competitive fight for a couple of rounds, and then I think Terence is going to take over,” Porter said of the Terence Crawford vs. Amir Khan fight on April 20.

Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) is supposed to knockout Khan (33-4, 20 KOs) without any problems in their fight on ESPN PPV from Madison Square Garden in New York. It’s hard to tell though, because Crawford hasn’t faced anyone good since moving up to 147, and he never fought any of the elite at 140 when he unified the division. It wouldn’t be surprising if Crawford loses to Khan. The best fighter Crawford has ever fought was a past his prime Yuriorkis Gamboa in 2014. If Khan comes out throwing speedy combinations, he might catch Crawford with something big that hurts him. This is the first time in Crawford’s career that he’ll be facing someone with better hand speed than him. Crawford struggles when he faces guys that throw continuous combinations. He does better when the fight is fought at a slow pace, and he’s able to counter single shots.

“I’m a fan of Terence. I’m just keeping it real. We’ve known each other for a while,” Porter said. “You watch the guy fight. He is something really special. It’ only a matter of time before he gets a fair shake in the boxing game. I think he’s overlooked and underrated. I’m looking forward to that fight. If him and I fight, it’s because him and I decided to fight. No one is going to force him and I to fight,” Porter said in continuing to smother Crawford with praise.

It’s unclear what Porter is talking about when he says that its “only a matter of time before he [Crawford] gets a fair shake” in talking about Terence. Crawford is the one that signed with a different promotional company as the guys that are part of PBC’s stable. Crawford did that on his own. When fighters sign contracts with different promoters, they need to make sure they know going in what kind of fights they’ll be able to get with those promoters. Crawford should have known what fights were available for him and which ones were not before he signed with Top Rank. If he didn’t know, then that’s on him.

You can argue that the only reason Crawford isn’t more popular is because he’s not had access to the popular fighters that are signed with PBC. The reason for that is because he signed with a different promoter and management, and then re-upped with them when his contract ran out. Further, Crawford’s counter punching switch-hitting, and highly mobile fighting style is also one that isn’t always entertaining to watch. If Crawford stood and slugged more like Gennady Golovkin, he’d probably have more fans than he does now. He moves a lot, and wastes time switch hitting instead of going after his opponents. More than anything, Crawford hasn’t fought the right guys to become popular. Look at Crawford’s last six opponents and judge for yourself: Jose Benavidez Jr., Jeff Horn, Julius Indongo, Felix Diaz Jr., John Molina Jr. and Viktor Postol.

“I don’t know,” Porter said when asked who is the tougher fight, Spence or Crawford? “Those are two different styles. I got to get ready for either style. I know what I’m capable of, so it’s hard to say which fight will be tougher. Yordenis is just that; he’s tough. I respected him for a long time. He’s been waiting for an opportunity for a long time, and I hope he doesn’t give up and decide to go in a different direction and try to get another belt. I believe in him. I believe he can do it, and trust me, it just wasn’t happening here tonight,” Porter said in sounding like he’s coming from up high in talking about his controversial win over Ugas.

It would have been nice to see Porter having some humility when he was talking about his ‘win’ over Ugas. It might have sounded better if Porter had the media that he didn’t know he got the win, but for some reason they scored it for him

Porter’s comments about his fight with Ugas sounded like he was talking about a different fight than the one that took place inside the ring. With a couple of different judges working the fight, Porter could have easily lost, and then he’d have had to explain what happened.