Tag Archives: championship fight
Terence Crawford focused on winning, says he admires Porter’s ability to keep his head high even in defeat
Terence “Bud” Crawford has set his sights on defeating Shawn Porter on Saturday night. There’s no hate but mutual respect for their respective journeys.
Crawford is relaxed, speaking to BoxingInsider.com on Wednesday ahead of a final press conference with Porter and their respective teams. Instead of responding to the standard resume/camp-related questions, Crawford shares his insights on his team and how proud he is of them. Additionally, he says negotiations for Saturday night’s fight were “fairly easy” and how he respects Porter’s stacked resume.
BI: Something that I’ve always admired is the strong team surrounding you. What are you most proud of when you look at BoMac (trainer Brian Mcintyre), Red, and Esau?
TC: I’m just happy and proud that they can share this light here with me. It’s been a long, tough road to get to this point. And we all made it. And we all made huge sacrifices. And I’m just happy to be the one to bring them to this point.
BI: A lot of sacrifices, a lot of long nights go into coordinating fights negotiations? Was this an easy negotiation?
TC: Negotiations were fairly easy far as I can remember. As far as Top Rank and PBC, I don’t know. But as far as my side, it was nothing.
BI: The narrative of the fight has been Shawn smothering aggressive style versus Bud’s, pure technical ability boxing abilities. Those are the discussions that people are having. What do you think people observe about your boxing style are equally as strong as your technical ability?
TC: I think by now, and everybody knows that I’m strong, I can punch, I can box, I can bang, I can brawl. So, I think it’s out there now. And I think that’s something that a lot of people know now.
BI: I’ve admired the mutual respect you both have for each other. When I talked to Shawn before, he admired how you completely dominated your opponents in previous fights. There’s never been a victory of yours where it was close. What is something about Sean’s victories that you’ve admired?
TC: Well, you know, me and Shawn are two guys that are students of the game. I admire the fights he has won, you know, in the fashion he has won in it. Being that he fought his fight. No, he got his opponents off their name, and he did what he had to do to rattle them and get in their head to force a clean-cut victory in most cases. For others, it was close.
Sometimes you get the nod, and sometimes you don’t. But, you know, those are the things that I admire from Shawn Porter because he always kept his head high. He never let that get to him or, you know, make him less of a fighter.
BI: What are some narratives that you hear that you wish would die about you, your career, or anything?
TC: You know me. I don’t care what type of narrative they say about me or how they view me. Because they gon keep talking about you regardless. So, it’s not my job to care or follow behind what the next person is saying about me.
BI: Lastly, I saw a video going around the internet from a party you had in Omaha. Everybody was dancing in the street, and you’re getting down. Does boxing make you a better dancer? Does dancing make you a better boxer?
TC: [laugh] I think both.
