Terence Crawford and Shawn Porter took different approaches at today’s final press conference, just as we would expect them to do in the ring this Saturday night on ESPN+ pay-per-view.
Crawford, 34, has been known for getting a little testy on fight week ahead of actually climbing into the ring, but when asked if he was ready to turn up the focus and the fire in his personality and say he was “ready to beat Porter’s ass,” Crawford basically shrugged and said he didn’t need to say it.
Porter, also 34, took a subtly tougher stance, trying to draw out Crawford’s emotions, which he’s said previously will be an issue for “Bud.”
“I don’t really think there’s much I can say to ‘Bud’ that’s gonna change the way he thinks about himself and the outcome of this fight, and vice versa,” Porter said. “No, he can’t look at me and say, ‘I’m about to beat your ass,’ and have me believe that. And he knows that, which is why he won’t even dare do it.”
Porter (31-3-1, 17 KO) stayed on that road, addressing Crawford (37-0, 28 KO) directly.
“I feel like you’ve matured, I feel like people see your character and personality more now than ever,” he said. “But I’m still correct in saying if the wrong Tweet or the wrong Instagram post goes up, you get upset.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Crawford replied.
“Listen, there’s people you can get to and there’s people you can’t get to. I’m one of those people you can’t get to. I’ve got a feeling you can get to him quicker on a microphone than you can in a ring,” Porter continued. “In the ring he is solid, he is a rock. But there may be something that might be posted or said here today that might affect him and have an impact on the fight. We shall see.”
Crawford stayed pretty stoic throughout, and gave his opponent his due. “I respect everything Shawn does. He’s athletic, he can box, he can bang. He can move around the ring and cut corners, take angles,” he said. “I’m not gonna sit here and say I don’t respect anything he does, I just think I do a lot of things better than Shawn.”
Porter responded, “I would say the exact same thing he said and I believe it.”
“I’m a really even-keeled kind of guy. I like things to be easy, and fight week is always easy for me,” Porter said in closing.
“The switch is already flipped,” Crawford said. “Once we signed that contract, the switch turned on. We’re here now and I can’t wait until Saturday, go out there and have fun, display my talent, and look good doing it.”
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