The WBO have scheduled a purse bid hearing for Thursday 2nd September after a deal for Terence Crawford to make a mandatory defence of his WBO welterweight title against Shawn Porter was not reached.
The governing body had ordered a fight between Crawford and Porter, the number two ranked contender on July 21, providing both teams a 30-day window to reach an agreement.
Reports in BoxingScene.com on Tuesday suggested that little progress had been made in discussions between representatives from Top Rank (Crawford’s promotional team) and Premier Boxing Champions (Porter’s promotional team) and the two sides were not expecting to reach a deal prior to Friday’s deadline.
On Monday, in a letter sent to Crawford’s promoter, Bob Arum and Tom Brown who works with PBC, the WBO officially set the purse bid hearing to take place on Thursday 2nd September at 12.00pm AST at their headquarters in Puerto Rico after a deal was not reached and confirmed it would be streamed live on their Facebook page.
A minimum acceptable bid is $200,000.
Three-weight world champion, Crawford, 33, has made four defences of his title since claiming the belt with a ninth round stoppage of Jeff Horn in June 2018, defeating Jose Benavidez Jr, Amir Khan, Egidijus Kavaliauskas and Kell Brook in his most recent outing in November 2020.
Former two-time welterweight world champion, Porter, 33, has not fought since bouncing back from a split decision defeat to Errol Spence Jr to outpoint Sebastian Formella last August.
‘Showtime’ would be regarded as Crawford’s stiffest challenge at 147lbs having also competed against Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman and Yordenis Ugas, who defended his WBA ‘super’ world title with a unanimous decision victory over Manny Pacquiao on Saturday.
Crawford reportedly has one fight remaining on his contract with Top Rank with no indication yet of where his future lies beyond this point.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” Porter said on the Porter Way Podcast in July.
“I don’t think the world could be any more excited about something that I’m doing in boxing.”
“I’ve been begging for a real challenge for years,” Crawford told ESPN when the fight was ordered.
“All the so-called elite welterweights have shown no interest in fighting me. Now one of them is finally being forced to.
“I’ll show once again why I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Be ready.”
