Hearn: Porter will get stripped if he fights Mayweather and not Brook

By Boxing News - 06/25/2014 - Comments

porter03By Scott Gilfoid: Eddie Hearn, the British promoter for #1 IBF Kell Brook (32-0, 22 KO’s), is all bent out of shape about IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-0-1, 15 KO’s) opting not to sign his part of the agreement for a title defense against Brook. Hearn already had Brook sign his part of the agreement for the IBF ordered fight between them, but Porter still hasn’t signed his part of the agreement and this has Hearn’s feathers ruffled.

Hearn isn’t sure why Porter hasn’t signed, but he thinks that there’s no way that he’ll get a unification match against WBA/WBC 147 pound champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. But if he does get the fight with the star, Hearn says Porter won’t have his IBF title because it’ll be stripped by the IBF for his failure to defend the belt against Brook.

“I don’t know what is going on. All I can say is we have a signed agreement for that fight and supposedly Porter will send his bout agreement to the IBF. We now wait on an official date from Golden Boy which we expect in the next 48 hours,” Hearn told the Dailymail.co.uk. “I believe the fight will go ahead. I don’t believe in a million years that Porter will get the Floyd Mayweather fight and there’s no doubt that if he doesn’t fight Brook, he’ll be stripped of his title.”

I belt Porter won’t be all broken up if the International Boxing Federation takes his IBF strap from him. I mean, which would you rather have – the IBF strap or a retirement payday against Mayweather? Heck, Porter can retire from boxing after he fights Mayweather from the money he’d make for that fight. If Porter wants to come back and recapture his IBF strap, it won’t be a big deal because he’d get the fight quickly. They could put that fight in Sheffield, and I still don’t think it would help Brook at all, because Porter will likely knock him out and make the judges into spectators.

Mayweather hasn’t said who he plans on fighting next, but he couldn’t go wrong by choosing Porter because at least it would be a unification bout against an unbeaten, well respected fighter. We don’t know how good Porter is right now, but I rate him right up there with Keith Thurman in the talent department. Porter is clearly a step above Marcos Maidana, and definitely better than guys like Amir Khan.



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