Terence Crawford Doesn’t Care About Josh Taylor Showdown, Wants Next Unification Boxing News 24

Via Chris Williams: Welterweight champion Terence Crawford says he’s on a different path from undisputed 140 lb champion Josh Taylor and that he’s not interested in facing him next.

Crawford noted that Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) defended the title against his WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs) on February 26.

The fights that WBO weight champion Crawford wants are unification against IBF/WBC champion Errol Spence Jr. and WBA belt holder Yordenis Ugas.

It could be an empty pipe dream on Crawford’s part, thinking he’ll have his next unification fight against one of those champions. In fact, Crawford letting Spence or Ugas fight him next is more based on fantasy than a realistic option for him.

It’s unlikely that former Crawford promoter Bob Arum will be able to set up fights against one of those champions for him next.

Over the past three years, Arum hasn’t had any luck setting up a fight between Crawford and Spence, and that’s not likely to change.

Thurman = Most realistic choice for Crawford

Currently, the most realistic pick for Crawford (38-0.29 KOs) is against Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman.

Former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) said Monday that he wants to take on Crawford next and that he will have eight months from now in the summer to challenge. title consciousness.

As long as Crawford is willing to wait that long, Thurman, 32, is probably his best bet.

Now that Crawford’s contract with Top Rated has expired since last Saturday night’s fight with Shawn Porter, he might be a bit delusional, thinking he’ll be beaten by PBC or Matchroom Boxing, and they do. will be able to open the door for him to get a united fight against Spence or Ugas.

Crawford naively believes that his win over 34-year-old Porter washed away will open the door to fights not available to him, but he may be kidding himself.

It was a well-deserved victory for Crawford, but the victory was overshadowed by the odd ending in which Porter’s father/coach Kenny Porter abruptly stopped the fight in the tenth round after Shawn was knocked out. twice.

Porter looked uninjured at the time, and some boxing fans thought that was odd. What made things worse was that Porter retired later and revealed that he intends to retire after the game, win or lose.

Crawford poured cold water on Taylor

“Down the road, maybe we can visit that war, but right now he has business to take care of,” Crawford told Sports sky about Taylor having to deal with WBO’s mandatory Catterall in February.

“Then who knows? But now he’s 140[lbs], I’m 147 and I’m looking at united wars, and so we’re on different paths right now, until we meet,” Crawford said.

The way Crawford was speaking, he sounded like he could be intimidated by Taylor because it was a much riskier fight than the opposition he was used to fighting.

While some boxing fans made a big deal about Crawford facing Porter last Saturday night, saying he was fighting his first elite-level boxer, the reality was that Shawn has been disqualified.

Even in his prime, Porter was never an elite boxer, and by the time he fought Crawford last Saturday, he was already a faded old guy, and going to retire. afterward.

Taylor was impressed with Crawford’s performance, telling Sky Sports, “I knew it was going to be tough for Crawford there. I only gave Crawford an inning or two, but he’s already starting to find his range.

“I have my own battle to focus on, it’s Jack Catterall, and it’s a very big fight, a very big risk, so I’m focusing on that.

“We’ll see how the fight goes, and then we can talk about these discussions and see what’s going on.