Terence “Bud” Crawford entered the ring with a chip on his shoulder. Years of being told he’s not a draw that he’s a B-side and not being able to secure big money fights with the premier welterweights who are predominantly on the PBC side of the street. Crawford moved up the welterweight division in 2019 after unifying all four belts at junior welterweight in 2018 by destroying Julius Indongo. At that point, fans had hoped for fights with the four-headed monster over at PBC, Spence, Porter, Thurman, and Swift Garcia. The possibilities were intriguing and endless. The issue is they left Bud out of their mega-fights. While PBC did an excellent job of matching their stable of fighters they had no interest in mixing it up with Crawford. On Saturday, November 20th he finally got his chance and he delivered in a massive way. Scoring a 10th round TKO victory over Shawn Porter to move his record to 38-0 (29) made the fifth defense of his WBO strap and secured our fighter of the week award.
Stepping into the ring at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas there was no question Crawford was getting in with the best opponent of his career. That he was going to be tested in ways he was never tested before. That’s exactly what happened through nine rounds. Despite the official scorecards, which were again atrocious, Porter had made it a dog fight and won most of the first nine rounds battling Crawford on the inside landing thudding right hands and short hooks that kept Bud uncomfortable and out of rhythm. However, after round nine, Crawford’s corner gave him the news that he had never heard before, that he was losing the fight. Just like Canelo did against Plant and Davis did with Barrios, in similar situations. Crawford jammed on the gas and got going. Crawford dropped Porter early in the 10th with a straight left out of the southpaw stance. Porter cleared his head and got up, and back at it. However Crawford, proved once again that he is the sport’s best finisher He hopped on Porter immediately and landed another force combination, a massive right hand dropped Porter for the second time causing Porter’s trainer/father to throw in the towel and bring an end to the bout. Giving Crawford a career-defining win and moving his unbeaten record to 38-0.
Crawford is now 34-years-old he is near the end of his peak and hopefully we get the Errol Spence fight in the very near future, to avoid excuses that one fighter was past his prime. However, Spence has still not been cleared to fight after suffering a retina tear to his right eye. If that fight can’t happen next and Crawford wants to fight twice next year, something he has not done since 2019, he will have two other main options while he waits for Spence. Undisputed 140-pound world champ Josh Taylor may want to do what Crawford did and make the jump to welterweight and fight for a world title straight away. The other option would be Vergil Ortiz. Ortiz is one of the premier youngsters in the sport and has called Crawford out. Bud told Ortiz to go and fight Egidijus Kavaliauskas. Ortiz obliged and stopped the “Mean Machine” in eight rounds, a round quicker than Crawford did. Either way, Ortiz, Taylor or Spence any fight is makeable. Arum said he wants to promote Crawford fights but not promote Crawford. Crawford seems down with long-term contracts and is a free agent for the foreseeable future.
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