Shawn Porter: I Will Have a Conversation with Crawford
On December 14, 2019, after WBO world welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (36-0, 27 KO’s) handily dismantled and stopped the over-matched Egidijus Kavaliauskas, ESPN commentator Timothy Bradley went on a now-infamous rant. In what looked like something akin to a WWE promo, Bradley essentially said that all the fighters within the PBC stable were acting very scary.
TOO MUCH DUCKING AND DODGING
He said this because he was clearly frustrated that Crawford could not secure a much sought-out bout with divisional rival and WBC and IBF world welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. (26-0, 21 KO’s). In the wake of this animated diatribe, many criticized him for overgeneralizing the situation. However, Shawn “Showtime” Porter (30-3-1, 17 KO’s), who is himself a PBC fighter felt, as if Tim Bradley spoke with far more than just a grain of truth.
In an exclusive interview with Fight Hub TV, Porter explained why Bradley was not that far off the money.
“Absolutely! Absolutely! Even within the PBC there’s fighters avoiding fighters within PBC, okay?! Guys are not fighting with their heart, they’re fighting with their brains and what I mean by that is they are trying to figure out how much money they can make and who is the easiest one out there for me to take on.
And that’s not fair to you guys [the fans]. We’re getting to the point you can’t duck anybody, even on the PBC side. You just saw me get it on with Errol Spence and you’ll see me get it on with someone else big. If that isn’t Terrence Crawford, it’ll be somebody else on the PBC side. But I’m not here to fight a #6 guy, I’m not here to fight a #10 guy. That’s why you haven’t seen me announce who I’m gonna fight because number one, two, three, four, five won’t fight me.”
WILL SHOWTIME AND BUD TAKE THE STAGE?
Going a step further, Porter let it be known that he also took no offense to what Bradley said because he was certain that he was not one of the fighters that was being referenced. Showtime was self-assured due to his fearless heart, past resume and the fact that he himself wants to fight Crawford!
“I haven’t been able to catch up to Terence Crawford yet. We been texting, I know he is here today. We’ll catch up and then you guys will find out something after that. But until that time don’t ever say that Showtime Shawn Porter is ducking anyone. Don’t say that Showtime Shawn Porter is ducking Terence Crawford and don’t dare say that Terence Crawford is ducking Showtime Shawn Porter.
Until we talk, until we have our conversation that we agreed upon, we not going to say nothing about one another that’s off sides because we owe that respect to one another.”
One thing is for certain, if the boxing world can’t get the Crawford versus Spence Jr super fight that they’ve been craving, Porter versus Crawford is damn fine substitute! Let’s hope that they do have that talk and great news follows shortly thereafter. In any event, 3kingsboxing will be on hand to report the latest and greatest.
By: Bakari Simpson
