By Norm Frauenheim–
LAS VEGAS – Friends aren’t supposed to fight each other. But Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter are about to in a fight fascinating in large part because of a friendship forged and often tested over a couple of decades.
Both 34, they’ve grown up together, brothers-in-arms who on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena will walk to opposite corners and then face each other in perhaps the best bout (ESPN+ pay-per-view, 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET) in the fabled welterweight division in awhile
It’s intriguing for all the usual reasons. There’s legacy and the pound-for-pound debate. It’s also the best fight at any weight in the post-Manny Pacquiao era. It’s a chance to move on in a business so often trapped in nostalgia.
That accounts for some late buzz suddenly surrounding a fight that was kind of lost when formally announced amid noisy hype before Tyson Fury’s wild stoppage of Deontay Wilder in the capper to a heavyweight trilogy on October 9.
Fury-Wilder was a carnival. Crawford-Porter could be a classic.
A sure sign of it is in the absence of the tired trash talk that cheapens so much of what boxing has to offer. In terms of the pre-fight rhetoric, most bouts these days are a cross between pro wrestling and a lousy-lounge act.
The pre-fight tone to this one is different. Translation: Nothing phony about it. The reason rests in what Crawford and Porter know about each other. They’ve watched each other, sometimes in admiration and sometimes warily, as amateurs and then as young pros. They might never have imagined that they would one day meet at the top of the 147-pound division.
But here they are, at a crossroads to a shared journey. In some ways, it almost looks inevitable. Then again, doesn’t everything in hindsight? But much of the bout revolves around what they’ve seen in each other over the years. Their past creates a dramatic dynamic.
They’ll step into the ring as very different personalities. Crawford says little. Porter, a television analyst, says a lot.
Crawford has the most expressive eyes since Thomas Hearns. They say everything. There’s anger there. Menace, too. More than a few opponents have looked into Crawford’s eyes and melted down.
But Porter won’t. He has looked into them. Looked back. Seen that anger. If anything, he’ll try to turn it around, turn it against Crawford.
Porter’s father and trainer, Kenny Porter, looks at Crawford and recalls a testy confrontation with him when the Omaha welterweight was 20-years old. Both Crawford and Shawn were fighting in an amateur tournament in Venezuela. There was a brawl in the stands. Kenny Porter thought he saw Crawford in the middle of it.
Kenny Porter decided to confront Crawford about it. He said he encountered Crawford in a dark hallway beneath the stands. He was about to ask him what in- the-hell happened.
That’s when Kenny Porter said he looked at Crawford and saw those eyes flash like a spark off flint.
“Then, I looked at Terence’s hands, which were already balled up into fists,’’ Kenny Porter said. “He looked at me. It was a look that said: ‘What do you want to do?’
“I decided to walk away. But that’s Terence.’’
Then and now.
It’s the Terence Crawford that father Kenny Porter and son Shawn say is essentially still there.
“I believe Terence Crawford is more dangerous than any fighter today,’’ Kenny Porter said.
But dangerous doesn’t mean unbeatable. Mike Tyson was the defining face of dangerous until he ran into Buster Douglas and then Evander Holyfield.
Shawn Porter puts on his analyst’s cap when he studies today’s Crawford, No. 2 to Canelo Alvarez in many pound-for-pound rankings.
He sees a fighter he might be able to disrupt with an inside attack full of uppercuts and counters.
Crawford’s versatile skillset – an ability to switch from orthodox to southpaw and one-punch power – has allowed him to dictate tempo throughout his unbeaten career (37-0, 28 KOs), which includes titles at three weights. That – and those eyes – help explain the odds. He was a 6-to-1 favorite Thursday.
But Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) thinks he can frustrate Crawford in ways that might anger him enough to interrupt a rhythm that from – fight-to fight – Crawford has been able to establish and sustain.
Porter knows Crawford’s temperament. He has seen him get angry at criticism.
“Every tweet, every social-media post that goes up, you’re going to get upset,’’ Porter said to Crawford Wednesday during the final formal news conference.
Crawford looked back and said:
“Maybe, maybe not.”
Texts and social media posts aren’t exactly uppercuts and counters. But Porter hopes they have the same impact, mostly because he’s seen how an old friend reacts to them. Porter’s use of the word “upset” was no coincidence. That’s what he’s planning.
Maybe, maybe not.
The Pick: Crawford, split decision. In the end, it’s a fight between consummate professionals. That means it will be decided by inches. Crawford is an inch taller. He has four-and-half more inches in reach. He’ll need those advantages and he’ll know how to use them against the clever Porter for a margin of a few points – inches – on the scorecards.
