Porter not interested in fighting Errol Spence, wants Mayweather instead

By Boxing News - 06/21/2015 - Comments

_MG_8091(Photo credit: Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions) By Dan Ambrose: Fresh off of his big win over Adrien Broner (30-2, 22 KOs) from last Saturday night, Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) says he has no interest in fighting unbeaten prospect/contender Errol Spence (17-0, 14 KOs) on Floyd Mayweather Jr’s undercard in September.

Mayweather recently said that he’d like for Spence, who he is very high on, to fight either Porter or WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman on his next undercard. However, Porter has zero interest in fighting a mere contender in his next, and he’s not interested in fighting on any of Mayweather’s undercard, period. Porter says he either wants a fight against Mayweather, or a rematch with IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, a fighter who beat him last year in August to take his IBF 147lb title.

“Kell Brook is a fight that I always want,” Porter said at the post-fight press conference. “When you take a loss to someone. I don’t think I should have lost to Kell Brook. There were things I didn’t do right, and I left it in the judges’ hands, and it played out the way it played out. If given a second chance, I’ll do everything the right way like I did tonight. That will go differently the next time. That’s always a fight that I want.”

Brook was able to use the same strategy that Broner used to nullify Porter’s offense by clinching him constantly for 12 rounds. Unlike Broner, Porter got away with his excessive clinching because the referee working the fight Pat Russell didn’t step in and take points off from Porter. But after that fight, Porter learned how to fight through clinches.

We saw a lot of that last Saturday with Porter continuing to throw punches even while being held. The only times Porter couldn’t throw punches was when Broner, a former high school wrestler, put him in vice-like clinches that were impossible for Porter to fight through, and when Broner leaned on Porter’s neck. In most cases though, Porter was able to continue to throw punches while being held by Broner, and this enabled him to win rounds.

“As for fighting Errol Spence on a Mayweather undercard, I’m not looking for anymore Mayweather undercards,” Porter said. “We were looking to get on the Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard, and that didn’t happen. Now I’m looking at Mayweather. I’m not interested in watching him fight after I fight. I’m looking at fighting him.”

Mayweather has already ruled out a fight against Porter for September. Mayweather says he wants to fight either Andre Berto or Karim Mayfield next. Whether or not he’s serious about this is unknown, but those are the guys that Mayweather has repeatedly been saying that he’s considering a fight against for his next bout.

“No, I just don’t feel like it’s gonna happen,” Floyd said via Fighthype about a fight against Shawn Porter. “He can fight on my under-card in September.”

It would be nice for Mayweather to have Porter on his undercard because it would definitely bring some interest from fans to see his fight on PPV, especially if his September opponent is Mayfield or Berto. Mayweather would need a good fighter on his undercard to try and drive the PPV buys. Mayweather’s undercard for his fight against Pacquiao was very poor in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. But if Mayweather fights Berto or Mayfield next, then he’s going to need to stack the undercard if he wants to sell PPV buys.



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