Devon Alexander: Shawn Porter’s skills are limited

By Boxing News - 11/13/2013 - Comments

alexander453434By Allan Fox: IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (25-1, 14 KO’s) isn’t too worried about his title defense on December 7th against unbeaten Shawn Porter (22-0-1, 14 KO’s) at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Alexander sees the 5’7″ Porter as a limited fighter that he’ll have no problems beating next month when they face each other.

Porter, #6 IBF, #6 WBO, #15 WBA, recently defeated Julio Diaz by a 10 round unanimous decision last September after having fought to a grueling 10 round draw against him last December. Diaz was able to catch Porter with some big shots in both of the fights, and it was pretty competitive throughout. Porter, 26, also has wins against Phil Lo Greco, Alfonso Gomez, Anges Adjaho, Ray Robinson, Hector Munoz, and Raul Pinzon. But his promoters haven’t put Porter in with anyone that you can call a good fighter until now with him facing Alexander.

This is why it’s going to be interesting to see how he does because it’s such a big step up from the type of opposition that he’s been matched against during his five year pro career. Anything can happen in this fight, but it’s likely that Porter will come up short because he didn’t shine in his two fights against Diaz.

“He’s a good fighter…but his skills are limited,” said via RingTV. “You can’t beat me if you’re limited. You have to do something special, but I’m going to be ready on Dec. 7, whatever he brings. At the end of the day, his plans, they’re just not going to work.”

Porter will have problems with Alexander’s jab, left hand and speed unless he’s able to hurt him somehow. With Porter not being a huge puncher, he’s going to have his work cut out for him in this fight. He doesn’t have the height or the reach, and that’s going to hurt him as well because Alexander will be able to stand on the outside and jab him all night.

One chance that Porter has is if Alexander suffers a hand injury like he did in his last fight against Lee Purdy last May. If Alexander hurts his hand then Porter could maybe eek out a decision, but barring that, he’s going to lose this fight. Alexander has been in with the much better opposition, and he’s got a lot of things in his favor for this fight. This is a good test for Alexander, but not a really tough one like Kell Brook, who Alexander will be facing next year if he can get past Porter.



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