Will they let Crawford ‘cross the street’ in 2020?

For Terence Crawford, it seems that we started boxing in 2019 and then, left it answering the same questions for the WBO welterweight champion:

When will they let Crawford take on the welterweights over across the street at Premier Boxing Champions (PBC)?

After Crawford’s latest victory over Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, I don’t think we’ll be any closer to seeing him get the crosswalk symbol. Anyone who has been following this saga for any period not only should expect this, but will have to accept this, and hope there is someone else for the undefeated champ for Omaha, Nebraska.

It’s all about how you finish the fight. And in boxing, there are few as good at it as Bud. ? #CrawfordMachine | @terencecrawford pic.twitter.com/oVWxtjGVmr

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) December 15, 2019

“I’m not ducking anyone on the PBC side or Top Rank platform. I want to fight all the top guys,” Crawford said after the fight with Kavaliauskas. 

Everyone knows that with Crawford, the issue is not him avoiding a fight at this point. Crawford has been on other network platforms earlier in the year, wanting a piece of the action against Errol Spence at PBC. With the recent car accident to Spence being sidelined, talk has ramped up as the next man up over at PBC in Shawn Porter.

Is that fight more likely? Like every conversation with Crawford versus a fighter on PBC, not so much.

“It’s all about the friendship,” Porter explained to Fox Sports host Kate Abdo during a recent edition of Inside PBC Boxing, for which the former titlist serves as an expert analyst. “He and I agreed that if this is the line that we will cross, then we will cross that line and handle the friendship after the fact.

“This is a decision (Crawford) and I made… three or four years [ago], now. That decision is a little outdated. Some things have happened since then.”

Once again, Crawford is seeming left out and not invited to the PBC picnic.

I was a guest on a recent episode of the Fightful Boxing Podcast with Carlos Toro, and we ran down the options for Crawford after Mean Machine, and one thing was pretty clear, he’s going to have to find someone across the street to battle in 2020. All signs point to that and would be shocked after this WBO mandatory it being anyone on that list at 147.

As long as Manny Pacquiao, the eyes on the prize for any welterweight in that division behind the unified champion Errol Spence, it feels like the notion of challenging Crawford not only on a rival promotion is also not a financially smart business decision. Both Pacquiao and Spence are currently a big chunk of the pay-per-view draws at 147 and Crawford while arguably on everyone’s pound for pound best lists isn’t.

Crawford is going to cross the street in 2020 in the ring; just don’t expect it to be against anyone on PBC.