WBO Delays Crawford-Porter Purse Bid- Deal Imminent?
Less than a day from a spectacle, online purse bid for the WBO World Welterweight Champ Terence Crawford to defend against Shawn Porter, the organization has delayed it, again, indicating the two sides’ promoters are close to a deal.
The Puerto Rican based WBO made the delay official on their social media and website Wednesday afternoon, saying that they have rescheduled the blind bidding to be revealed on September 14th, unless a deal is reached,
The purse bid for the mandatory bout between WBO Welterweight Champion Terence Crawford and challenger Shawn Porter has been moved to September 14th, following a request from the promoters of both fighters, Top Rank (Crawford) and Tom Brown's TGB Promotions (Porter).
— WBO (@WorldBoxingOrg) September 1, 2021
In late July, the WBO originally gave the two fighters and promoters 30 days to come to an agreement to fight this Fall. As we wrote at that time, they notified Top Rank Boxing and TGB Promotions,
Please be advised that the parties herein have thirty (30) days upon issuance of this notice to negotiate and reach an agreement for the above-referenced WBO Welterweight Championship Contest. If an accord is not reached within the timeframe stated herein, a purse bid will be ordered per the WBO Regulations of World Championship Contests.
The minimum acceptable bid in the WBO Welterweight Division is $200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Dollars). Any of the parties involved may request a purse bid procedure at any time during the negotiation process.
Back in late June I was a guest with Porter at the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan Hotel, when he appeared on the live “TC Martin Show” radio show heard five days a week locally.
Porter told the show then about privately contacting Crawford trying to make the fight a reality,
“We’ve been friends for a long time. And, I said publicly, ‘I want to apologize to Terence Crawford. The decision we made a few years ago, if anyone wants us to fight, let’s NOT do that,” Porter told the show.
“And then, saying publicly, ‘I want to fight Terence Crawford.’ I don’t think he liked that. It left a bad taste in his mouth. He stopped returning my text messages and returning my phone calls.
I said, ‘You know what?’ After boxing we gotta whole lot of life to live…I want to resolve that. We can be enemies in the ring 12 rounds. But, we can be friends for a long time.
If anyone wants us to fight (he and Crawford) let’s come together and do that,” Porter continued.
“The fight can be sold as a PPV. I can help sell it as a PPV. I’ll make Terence do what he has to do to sell it. It can be done. If you want to take this fight just to primetime ESPN (Top Rank) or prime time Fox (Premier Boxing Champions). I’m completely fine with that.”
Crawford, 37-0, hasn’t fought since last November and at this point, is expected to test free agency. It’s also debatable that he could relinquish the WBO 147 lb. title rather than fight Porter. It’s no secret that he really wanted to fight WBC/IBF current champ Errol Spence, instead. Spence, however, agreed to fight legend Manny Pacquiao for an August PPV only to have to pull out with a damaged left eye and have surgery.
Porter, 31-3-1, is the former WBC Welterweight Champ (losing to Spence in 2019) and has fought under the PBC umbrella for over 6 years now. However, he apparently has the freedom to agree to fight on another network and/or under another promoter’s terms.
Now, we wait to see, if the deal gets made for what would be the most significant title defense of Crawford’s Welterweight career.
A veteran broadcaster of over 25 years, T.J. has been a fight fan longer than that! He’s the host of the “Big Fight Weekend” podcast and will go “toe to toe” with anyone who thinks that Marvin Hagler beat Sugar Ray Leonard or that Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Deontay Wilder could have beaten Ali!
