Terence Allan Crawford vs. Shawn Christian Porter

November 20th at Mandalay Bay. WBO world welterweight title at stake, 5th defense of Crawford.

Come fight night both men will be 34 years of age (Bud's birthday was last month, and Showtime's is later in this). The southpaw champion will have a 1" height and 5½″ reach advantage, and has fought as low as lightweight while his challenger debuted at super middle and spent time alternating between 160 and 154 before gradually easing his way down to 147lbs for the last several years.

Common opponents include:

• Ezekiel Brook - Porter lost a MD to him in 2014; Crawford defeated him via TKO4 last November.
• Danny Óscar García - Porter took a UD over him in 2018; Crawford split a pair with him in the amateurs.
• Yordenis Ugás Hernández - Porter took a SD over him in 2019; Crawford lost to him in the amateurs.
• Ray Robinson - Porter took a UD over him in 2010; Crawford lost to him half a decade prior in the amateurs.

(BTW, if you're shocked that Porter had such great amateur success; don't be. No shame if you DKSA how beastly his résumé was, as they don't often bring it up on TV broadcasts...although maybe they should. His crown jewel? A victory over current WBA Super, IBF, and WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. You read that right. Not like it was man versus boy or anything unfair like that, either - both were 19yo...)

 

Porter sparring with Caleb Plant, not really sure whom that benefits tbh. I mean, both I guess in the sense that world class sparring partners are never a bad thing ...but Plant isn't really suitable prep for Bud, and Porter isn't for Canelo.

 

A lot of people (not just 36.4% of poll respondents but on boxing Twitter as well) are picking Crawford not just to win but to stop Porter and I'm just...

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Like...this is a famously tough/nigh unstoppable, and massive welterweight. I get that Crawford has stopped 4/4 opponents at the weight since moving up, but still

 

No, they fought at the amateur equivalent of what's called super middleweight in the pros.

Porter is a BIG dude, bigger than most people realize. He never fought as low as welter for the first few years of his pro career; he whittled down there gradually from 168/160/154.
Most of the guys he fought in the amateurs are not pro welters, but in the higher divisions.

 

It's actually not that hard to wrap your head around, when they were 19 both were amateur middleweights (75kg, or 165lbs). Usyk then filled out a bit and spent the rest of his amateur run from his early twenties on at amateur heavyweight (91kg/200lbs) and then the first several years of his pro career at cruiser which is pretty much the same thing. Remember he only very recently packed on that extra 20lbs, he's very much a natural 200lber, throughout his prime. So where they fought was only 35lbs below that, when he was a teenager. Thinking about it that way makes it seem less jarring than "220lber versus welterweight!! "

Also the video is very hard, maybe impossible, to find. Good luck!