On Saturday night, Terence Crawford faced the biggest and toughest fight of his career.
His opponent was Shawn Porter, a pitbull who takes the toughest shots, delivers haymakers, and keeps coming forward with unrelenting pressure.
It was an exciting fight, one which had Porter ahead on various scorecards.
But in the 10th round, after Crawford dropped Porter a second time, Shawn’s father and trainer, Kenny, threw in the towel, ending the night for his son.
Crawford endured Porter’s style for nine rounds, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike.
And he did just that in the tenth round, unleashing his fury in the blows that ended the fight by TKO.
“I know I caught him with a good uppercut,” said Crawford. “When I caught him with another left hook, I saw it in his face that he was real hurt. His dad did the right thing by stopping it. I was coming with a vengeance.”
Terence Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) did his job.
Now it’s time for boxing to do theirs and give fans what we truly want and deserve.
Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford.
At this point, it will be the biggest fight of 2022 and maybe of the last few years, arguably trailing only behind the Wilder vs. Fury trilogy.
This year boxing fans witnessed some amazing fights.
We got to see the greatness of Canelo in his 11th round TKO of Caleb Plant.
We got to see Tyson Fury cement his place in boxing with a second consecutive KO of Deontay Wilder.
And while we await the Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, Vasyl Lomachenko matchups, the true super-fight resides in the welterweight division.
And that’s Spence vs. Crawford.
Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) is the WBC and IBF welterweight champion.
His last fight was a unanimous decision over Danny Garcia in December of 2020.
Before that, his time was spent out of the ring recovering from a horrific car accident that almost claimed his life.
In 2019, Spence was at the top of the division after dominant victories over Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter, the latter only two weeks before Spence’s accident.
While it almost took him from this earth, it ended up being a wake-up call for Spence.
A call that told him to stop walking down the path he was currently on.
“It gave me the same hunger that I had before I won the world title,” said Spence before his fight against Danny Garcia.
It alerted Spence that he needed to control his training, weight, focus and destiny.
“Now, I’m actually training year-round and making it a priority, more than just, ‘OK, I got a fight; now, I gotta start training,'” said Spence. “Now, I’m training ahead of time, instead of waiting until the last minute.”
Being in shape is a commitment he’s maintained.
That was evident last night in Las Vegas when fans saw him in the crowd at Crawford’s fight.
His appearance was noted by Crawford in his post-fight interview in the ring.
“That boy said he would never be at my fights and now he’s at my fights,” said Crawford while gazing into the crowd.
Crawford is ready for Spence, and he isn’t afraid to let everyone know it.
“You already know who I want. I’ve been calling him out all day. Maybe I’ll go up to 154. Maybe if Spence gets his tail out of his butt, he’ll fight me.”
This is the fight both fighters need and deserve.
Terence Crawford, the WBO Welterweight champion, has proven his talent in every fight, and he did it again last night against Shawn Porter.
It was close until the 10th round when Crawford unloaded a vicious left uppercut to drop Porter. He then followed it up with a devastating combo that ended Porter’s night.
Ironically, the only thing tougher than Porter is Crawford’s inability to secure the big fights against the top competition in the division.
Some allude to his alignment with Top Rank preventing that from happening, as the bigger names, such as Spence, Porter and Garcia are over at Premier Boxing Champions.
Crawford’s frustration spilled out a few years ago when he took Top Rank to task for not securing him the fights he wanted and needed to show the world that the quiet fighter from Omaha was the best in the division.
Last night he got his wish and the WBO champ took care of business.
Now we have to hope and pray that the politics of boxing don’t deter the Spence vs. Crawford fight from being made.
At this point, there’s nothing left for the two fighters to prove (in the division) except that they can beat the other.
It’s the perfect opportunity for a multi-fight deal.
The desire, demand, and money are all there.
Last night, Terence “Bud” Crawford did his part to make the Spence vs. Crawford super-fight a reality.
Now it’s time for boxing to do theirs.
