Less than two hours before a scheduled purse bid, Top Rank and PBC have come to terms for WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford’s mandatory title defense against Shawn Porter. Top Rank’s Carl Moretti tells Kevin Iole that the two are officially set to meet on November 20th at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay.
ESPN reports that the fight will air on ESPN+ PPV, meaning you’ll need to purchase a subscription and then the PPV separately.
This is immediately one of the best matchups on the schedule; Crawford (37-0, 28 KO) clearly boasts pound-for-pound skills but hasn’t had a marquee fight since vacating his undisputed super lightweight title to move up to 147, while Porter (31-3-1, 17 KO) consistently gives top welterweights everything they can handle. It’s both extremely relevant to the division hierarchy and a potential knockdown, drag-out slugfest.
Both men will be coming off of lengthy layoffs. Crawford was last seen mauling Kell Brook in November, while Porter has fought just once since his 2019 Fight of the Year candidate against Errol Spence Jr., cruising past Sebastian Formella in August 2020.
