What now for free agent Crawford following significant win against Porter?
Plus tons of notes: Andrade still seeks big fight; Alimkhanuly eyes middleweight mandatory status; Andrew Moloney returns; Bivol defense set; much more
LAS VEGAS — After Terence Crawford stopped former two-time titleholder, mandatory challenger and good friend Shawn Porter in the 10th round to retain the WBO welterweight belt on Saturday at Mandalay Bay’s sold-out Michelob ULTRA Arena, Crawford came to the media center to discuss the fight and address his uncertain future.
First, he shard a few private moments with Porter, who had announced his retirement from boxing minutes earlier after Crawford had knocked him down twice in the 10th round, which prompted Kenny Porter, his father and trainer, to signal referee Celestino Ruiz to stop the fight.
After the Porters wished Crawford congratulations and left the room, Crawford took center stage, where his future was a key topic of discussion.
The fight represented the last on the contract extension he signed with Top Rank in late 2018 and he is now a promotional and broadcast free agent. He was seated next to his longtime promoter, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, when asked about his plans.
“Well, I’m pretty sure my decision is made already,” Crawford said. “You know, Bob couldn’t secure me the (Errol) Spence fight when I was with him. So, how he gonna secure me the Spence fight when I’m not with him? So, you know, I’m moving forward with my career right now and I wish everybody the best.”
Arum said before Crawford’s arrival at the news conference that he was not in any hurry to try to re-sign him to a multi-fight deal anyway, reiterating what he had said many times leading up to the fight. However, Arum said he is more than happy to work with him on a fight-by-fight basis and continue to try to secure significant opponents for him. He would like to match Crawford with undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor, who is also with Top Rank, next year provided Taylor defeats mandatory challenger Jack Catterall on Feb. 26.
“Tommy Hearns was in the ring (after the fight). I never had a contract with Hearns for more than one fight,” Arum said. “Never had a contract with (Sugar Ray) Leonard more than one fight. (Marvin) Hagler, maybe two fights, but never long-term contracts. We never had long-term contracts. If somebody comes and offers Terence a lot more money, he’d be a fool not to take it. But we think we can produce the best fight for him. It’s got nothing to do with personalities or anything. We know when we put a fight on, the fighters get treated well, they’re taken care of. But other people can do that also, so, again, Terence will, if he’s smart, which I believe he is, will look at all the offers and see what’s the best way to go.”
Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs), 34, of Omaha, Nebraska, was not ready to commit to anything related to his next move.
“I’m gonna let my little head-butt heal up and then, you know, we gonna go to the drawing board and see what’s best for Terence Crawford and his career moving forward,” he said.
The biggest possible fight for Crawford is the one fans and media have called for against Spence, who outpointed Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs), 34, of Las Vegas, in an all-action fight in September 2019 to unify to welterweight titles.
Crawford and Spence have gone back and forth verbally and each blamed the other for the fight not taking place. Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), 31, of DeSoto, Texas, who has been cleared to train after suffering a torn retina that forced him out of a scheduled Aug. 21 fight with Manny Pacquiao and undergoing surgery, was ringside Saturday. Crawford didn’t know he was until told, but said it didn’t mean much.
“How many fights did I go to of his? Did he make any gestures to fight me, to call me out or say, ‘Let’s get in the ring?’ Nothing changes,” Crawford said.
Crawford explained why he didn’t believe he needs to fight Spence, although most fans and media would disagree.
“I don’t need Spence,” Crawford said. “I been the No.1 guy in the division since I came here (in 2018). You know, three-weight world champion. You know what I mean? Like undisputed world champion (at junior welterweight). You know, coming in the welterweight division, my first fight, and win a title (by knockout of Jeff Horn). Like the things that I been doing in my whole career is nothing compared to Spence. You know, not to take nothing away from him. You know, he’s unified and whatnot.”
Omaha radio appearance
On Monday, I was a guest on the “Severe And Benning In The Morning” show on 1620 The Zone sports radio in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, for an in-depth discussion of his big win over Porter on Saturday night. Please listen to the segment here:
Andrade in search of big fight
Demetrius Andrade is frustrated and it’s hard to blame him. He’s been a pro since his run in the 2008 Olympics and is an undefeated fighter with world titles in two divisions but he has not been able to land a major fight. He has been perhaps the most avoided boxer in the sport for several years.
He retained the WBO middleweight title for the fifth time by blowing away Jason Quigley in the second round on Friday night in the Matchroom Boxing main event on DAZN in Manchester, New Hampshire. But he wants a big fight, be it undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez or middleweight unification bouts with WBC titlist Jermell Charlo or IBF titleholder Gennadiy Golovkin.
“Why do these guys get the Canelo (Alvarez) fight? What’s the difference between me and them,” Andrade lamented. “What did they do? If the answer is ‘they are world champion’ well so am I, a two-weight world champion. So what’s the story really? I don’t know. I am slick, I have got skills and I am going to adjust and give you a different look every single round if I need to. These other guys just do the same thing so it’s easy pickings.
“You want me to talk about Charlo? GGG? Why don’t they want the fight? Why is (Golovkin) going to Japan to fight (Ryota) Murata? What excitement does that bring when I am right here? But I understand the business. You have four European guys that aren’t in the best shape and in one year, you become undisputed. I’m happy for Canelo, for him to have the power to say, ‘I want to fight every champion in one year.’ I can’t do that! No one can but him, and he did it in the right weigh class. Did he fight the best? Let’s be honest, no. I tried to fight Billy Joe (Saunders) at 168 pounds to see who should get the Canelo fight and what happened? Charlo? (We offered him) $7 million. You don’t want that? OK, let’s negotiate, but that’s a lot of money! Who else other than Canelo are you going to make that sort of money with? But at the end of the day this is what it takes to have life-changing situations. They will make more fighting me and I’ll make more, so we all win.
“But all of a sudden, because Canelo says I am a horrible fighter now Charlo wants to say it, because why, the casual fans maybe don’t know as much about me and I’m not the most popular in the mainstream? Cool. But once people see who I am and what I am made of they say, yep, that’s a great fight and everyone in boxing knows I am a great fighter and I am going to be a massive threat because I know what to do to beat these guys and I can.”
Alvarez belittled Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs), 33, a southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island, and had him ejected from his post-fight news conference after stopping Saunders in May.
Andrade has one fight left on his Matchroom Boxing contract and hopes it’s a big one.
“I have a good contract, I am making good money and at the end of the day, I can’t get frustrated and be emotionally driven as it’s out of my control,” he said. “Don’t talk to me about Jaime Munguia. He’s been my mandatory forever. If he wants to fight we can make it happen. He had the fight and he passed on it, not me. I don’t have the luxury to say ‘I’m not fighting him.’
“I tried Billy Joe at 160 pounds (in a mandatory title challenge) and he got popped for drugs. Then we tried at 168 and he fought Canelo. He didn’t deserve it, but it happened. I’m not going to just move up for the sake of it. Who is up there? What’s a big fight? Canelo just beat them all.
“For me to go up and just fight at 168 with nothing big on the line or no big money, what’s the point of me doing that? The WBO (160) belt is the only leverage I have and I have to hold onto it to keep these people engaged.”
Alimkhanuly presses for mandatory
Middleweight Janibek Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7 KOs), a 2016 Olympian from Kazakhstan and one of boxing’s top prospects, is pressing his case to be the mandatory challenger for WBO middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade.
Both were in action over the weekend with Andrade retaining the title by second-round knockout of Jason Quigley on Friday night in the Matchroom Boxing main event on DAZN at SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Alimkhanuly a 28-year-old southpaw, battering former middleweight titlist Hassan N’Dam in an eight-round knockout victory on the Terence Crawford-Shawn Porter undercard on Saturday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in La Vegas.
On Sunday, Egis Klimas, Alimkhanuly’s manager, wrote to WBO president Paco Valcarcel to make the case.
Noting that the deadline for Andrade’s next mandatory defense to be ordered is next month, Klimas wrote, “We would like you and WBO committee to consider my middleweight boxer Janibek Alimkhanuly for (the) mandatory position.”
Klimas noted that the WBO has him ranked No. 2 at 160 pounds and he went over his resume, which includes back-to-back knockout wins over former titleholder N’Dam and Rob Brant, also in the eighth round, in June.
“We strongly believe that Janibek deserves to be in the mandatory position against the WBO Champion, Demetrius Andrade,” Klimas concluded.
Valcarcel responded later Sunday with a letter to Andrade promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, which he copied to Klimas, officials from Alimkhanuly promoter Top Rank and others. He said he received Klimas’ request, mentioned Alimkhanuly’s record and accomplishments and said he was “referring the matter to the WBO World Championship Committee to proceed accordingly.”
Moloney on comeback trail
Australian junior bantamweight contender Andrew Moloney returns to action to face former flyweight world title challenger Froilan Saludar (32-4-1, 22 KOs), 32, of the Philippines, on Dec. 9 (ESPN+) at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in Newcastle, Australia, in his first fight since, finishing his trilogy with WBA regular titlist Joshua Franco by losing a unanimous decision on Aug. 14 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Moloney (21-2, 14 KOs), 30, is looking to regroup after going 0-2 with a no contest in three consecutive fights against Franco.
“I believe I have learnt a lot from that trilogy and I am extremely hungry to get back to the top,” said Moloney, a former interim titlist. “Saludar is a dangerous opponent. He is very experienced and his losses have only come against very high-level fighters. He is explosive and has a long reach but I believe I will be adding another KO loss to his record.”
The fight will be Moloney’s first in Australia since November 2019, after which he fought all three fights with Franco in the United States.
“I am really excited to be fighting in Australia again for the first time in over two years,” Moloney said. “I plan on making a statement, showing what I have learnt from my recent fights and putting on a devastating performance.”
Quick hits
Dmitry Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs) is a late addition to a Dec. 11 card in Ekaterinburg, Russia, where he will defend his WBA light heavyweight title against fellow Russian Umar Salamov (26-1, 19 KOs) ahead of a possible 2022 showdown with top contender Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (42-0, 28 KOs), who is poised to become his mandatory challenger if he beats underdog Yunieski Gonzalez (21-3, 17 KOs) on Dec. 18 (DAZN) in San Antonio. Salamov (26-1, 19 KOs) was due for a rescheduled mandatory challenge against WBO titlist Joe Smith Jr. in January. But when Salamov was unable to get a visa to get into the United States, and it appeared he would not be able to for the foreseeable future, he accepted the offer to face Bivol. Salamov never had a fight under his Top Rank promotional agreement and they have mutually ended the contract, Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told Fight Freaks Unite, with the understanding that if he ever does fight in the U.S., Top Rank would be involved.
Salita Promotions, which represents three-division champion Claressa Shields (11-0, 2 KOs), 26, of Flint, Michigan, announced that her unified middleweight title defense against Ema Kozin (21-0-1, 11 KOs), 22, a southpaw from Slovenia, scheduled for Dec. 11 at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales, will be available in the United States via the FITE app and iNDemand PPV on linear television and satellite. Three other bouts will also be part of the pay-per-view (2:30 p.m. ET), including the main event between middleweight contenders Chris Eubank Jr. (31-2, 23 KOs), 32, of England, and Liam Williams (23-3-1, 18 KOs), 29, of Wales.
Late result: Artem Dalakian (21-0, 15 KOs), 34, retained the WBA flyweight title by ninth-round knockout of mandatory challenger Luis Concepcion (39-9, 28 KOs), 36, of Panama, on Saturday in Kyiv, Ukraine, Dalakian’s hometown. Dalakian, who made his fifth defense, dropped Concepcion the fifth round and again in the ninth round before his corner threw in the towel as he absorbed a beating after the second knockdown.
Show and tell
Mike Tyson was already a phenomenon exciting sports fans with his big knockouts. Then, at age 20 years, 4 months, 22 days, Tyson was ready to fight for the title and fulfill the prophecy of late trainer and legal guardian Cus D’Amato, who predicted he would win the heavyweight title. Not only did Tyson improve to 28-0 with 26 KOs in just his 21st month as a professional to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history, he did it in overwhelmingly destructive fashion when he challenged WBC titleholder Trevor Berbick at the Las Vegas Hilton. Berbick survived a knockdown in the first few seconds of the second round and then Tyson landed the title-winning left hook, essentially scoring three knockdowns with the single punch to the temple as Berbick rose but kept falling down because he was so badly disoriented, forcing referee Mills Lane to stop the fight. It wasn’t just a title win for Tyson but his coronation as the “Baddest Man on the Planet” and the start of a new era in boxing. That historic and memorable Tyson win was on Nov. 22, 1986 — 35 years ago on Monday.
It took me awhile but I eventually added three significant items from the fight to my collection: a mint program, which is increasingly scarce and extremely hard to find in the kind of top condition mine is in, as well as two different site posters, the main artwork version and the one with LeRoy Neiman artwork.
Crawford and Alimkhanuly photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Andrade photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
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Dan, I just read your tweet stating that Crawford/Porter did less than 150,000 buys. I thought they got close to 200,000 buys? Was the initial report off? If so, why can't Crawford just sell PPVs? How was Spence/Porter able to do almost 300,000 buys and yet this fight did essentially half of that? What am I missing here? Is Bob ticked off at the low numbers of this PPV or did he expect this?
Hopefully we get Crawford vs Spence soon as father time is ticking so lets get this fight on whilst both men are at the their best.