Porter vs. Spence could happen in future, says Kenny P

By Boxing News - 08/24/2016 - Comments

Image: Porter vs. Spence could happen in future, says Kenny P

By Allan Fox: Kenny Porter, the trainer/father of former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 KOs), says a fight between him and unbeaten #2 IBF Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) is a fight that he’s interested in for the future when Spence becomes more of a name. Kenny is more interested right now in matching Porter against WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman in a rematch or the likes of WBC 147lb champion Danny Garcia. Those are fights that he’d like to make in the near future for Porter.

Thurman is expected to defend his WBA title against his mandatory challenger next David Avanesyan. Garcia could face Andre Berto next and then possibly Thurman in 2017. Porter could be back in October for his next fight, according to Kenny.

“That would be an excellent and wonderful fight,” Porter said of a matchup with Spence to RingTV.com. “It’s a fight that could possibly happen one day, a little further down the line. Errol hasn’t quite gotten to where we’re at with the people we want to fight right now, the Keith Thurmans, Danny Garcias of the world — those guys who we have unfinished business with.”

Porter would be a really tough fight for Spence right now. Spence had problems with the pressure from Leonard Bundu last Sunday. Porter is a lot quicker, more aggressive and more powerful than Bundu. He’s also harder to hit consistantly. The uppercuts that Spence was able to hit Bundu with, he’d likely be missing if he tried those same shots against Porter. Spence would need better accuracy with his punches and much better defense for him to beat Porter.

It’s very unlikely that Porter will get a piece of Garcia in 2016. If that fight happens, it would likely need to take place in 2017, because Garcia is expected to fight one more time in 2016 against Berto. In early next year, Garcia will fight either Amir Khan or Thurman. If Porter is going to get a shot against Garcia, and that’s IF, it would need to take place in the second half of next year.

Spence isn’t going to fight Porter right now anyway, because his main goal is to fight for the IBF welterweight title. Spence just finished beating Leonard Bundu last Sunday in an IBF title eliminator.

Spence won that fight by a 6th round knockout to become the mandatory to IBF belt holder Kell Brook. If Spence can win the IBF title, then he says he wants to go after the champions in the weight class. Porter would be a normal title defense and not an opponent that he would be seeking out unless he had come up dry in trying to get a unification fight against Garcia, Thurman or Jessie Vargas.

Porter came close to beating Thurman last June in battling him hard for 12 rounds. Thurman ended up winning a narrow 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113. Porter smothered his own work by getting in real close to Thurman but too close to generate any power on his shots. Thurman landed the better punches when there was separation between the two of them. However, Porter’s constant pressure made it tough on Thurman, because he forced to fight hard and move a lot around the ring.

Showtime Boxing would likely jump at the chance of putting on a rematch between Thurman and Porter in 2017. There’s not a lot of contenders in the 147lb division that could battle Thurman as hard as Porter did. Spence, Kell Brook, Manny Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas would be the biggest threat to Thurman besides Errol Spence. If light welterweight champion Terence Crawford was willing to move up weight to welterweight, then he’d be a good test for Thurman.