The World Boxing Organisation has decided to pit their welterweight champion Terence Crawford against former WBC and IBF titleholder Shawn Porter and both the fighters have a month to secure a deal before the sanctioning body orders the purse bid.
A former unified light-welterweight world champion who held the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF and WBO titles, Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) moved up to welterweight in 2018 and clinched the WBO belt against Jeff Horn.
Since then, “Bud” has marked four successive title defences, against José Benavidez Jr, Amir Khan, Egidijus Kavaliauskas as well as Kell Brook. The last appearance Crawford made in the squared circle against Brook dates back to November 14th last year.
However, the fanbase always wanted the 33-year-old Crawford to go up against some of the more elite names at 147, and the name of Shawn Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) was the one popping up the most.
Now with WBO themselves ordering the fight, many would get what they were wishing for a long time on their plate, but is Crawford on the same boat?
Crawford is facing Porter, but he originally wished for a Manny Pacquiao fight
The American, back in February, had originally thumbed down to the idea of a Porter faceoff and rather wanted to challenge the legendary Manny Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs), even though he did not downplay “Showtime” Porter’s sparring abilities.
“I don’t know we just have to wait and see. Both of them are great fights,” Crawford had said in an interview with FightHype in February, “Yeah I prefer the Manny Pacquiao fight over Shawn Porter, but Shawn Porter is a great fight in its own right and I am going to be ready for whichever one comes to fruition.”
“Both of them have their own strong points. Manny Pacquiao is fast and moving, he can punch. Shawn Porter is aggressive, tough, and durable,” the WBO champion further asserted.
While Crawford is getting the less preferred faceoff against Porter, ‘PacMan’ Pacquiao is counting days to make his comeback to the boxing ring against unified WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr (27-0, 21 KOs) on 21st August.
Spence, who recently insisted that he would “retire” the 42-year-old Filipino after their fight, has also shown interest in facing Crawford as his next opponent.
Now, in case WBA’s “Champion in recess” Pacquiao defeats spence
