We’ve gotten used to seeing Terence Crawford do his thing and interpreting his work as being easy work. Yeah, he hasn’t been pressed to an edge, pushed to near his limit, and typically he wins damn near every round he engages in.

On Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, “Bud” got tagged with some right hands, more than his trainer Brian McIntyre would like, and most agreed that his scrap against Egidijus Kavaliauskas wasn’t of the “easy work” variety.

McIntyre told me that yes indeed, those right hands from “Mean Machine” forced him to talk to his charge between rounds. He told him to tighten up, be aware of that punch and lock into a rhythm. Once he found his rhythm, Bud looked like the Bud we usually see, and he exited with a stoppage win in Round 9.

McIntyre was asked about any people thinking that at age 32, Crawford’s reflexes have dimmed a bit. “You can’t take away nothing away from Mean Machine,” the trainer/manager stated. “That motherfucker was tough as shit. He said he studied six months on Terence, and he did his homework too. And I commend him for that! He surprised me, man, he surprised me a lot.”

Machine’s different looks, his ability to maintain a pace and his strategy clearly impressed the trainer.

He told Bud that some of the rounds were close. “You don’t know what these judges are thinking,” he said. He also asked Bud to pick up the volume, make MM keep up with him. “Don’t let him outwork you, don’t let him out-think you,” the trainer would tell Bud before rounds started.

Before the eighth, he again told Bud to pick it up. “Act like the champion you are,” he commanded.

As the rounds progressed, the fighter’s legs and upper body were in concert. “He started bouncing in and bouncing out,” said McIntrye. He came up short with his punches earlier because he wasn’t using the legs like “Bomac” desired.

So, this one is done… What’s next?

Maybe Shawn Porter?

“I think we are (getting a PBC fighter to fight Bud in 2020). I’m trying to get Terence the best dollar for his bang, trying to get the most money possible. If it’s the PBC guys or whatever the case gotta be, he deserves it, man, he fuckin’ deserves it.”

“That would be good for boxing,” continued McIntyre of a Crawford-Porter scrap. “It’s doable, I think it’s doable because I spoke to Bob Arum not too long after the fight.” Arum wanted to know if Bomac was on board for Bud vs. Porter, and the trainer now believes that in 2020 a massive Top Rank-PBC intra-party clash could finally be fashioned.

OK, friends, talk to me—Terence Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) versus Shawn Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs and has never been stopped), who wins and how?

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