Will Porter vs. Broner 2 be better than Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 2?

By Michael Vena - 06/26/2015 - Comments

broner565656By Yannis Mihanos: Last Saturday, I watched a highly competitive and entertaining encounter between former three division world champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner (30-2, 22 KOs) and Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) in their bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Porter wound up winning a 12 round unanimous decision in a fight that was televised on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC.

Porter and Broner gave a strong reminder to all boxing fans of how competing at this level should be.

I heard Porter prior the match on an interview highlighting that this fight will be a much better fight than that of the May 2nd fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Of course at that time I didn’t believe him. I had my sincere doubts. Let’s not forget that Pacquiao and Mayweather belong at the elite level of boxing. It’s a fact that last May we witnessed a fight that met not our expectation in terms of quality. This was supposed to be a fight that after we would all cherish and remember for many years or decades to come but none of it truly happened. The end result was pretty much predictable and boring.

As the Saturday fight went through, Porter proved dead right. This was indeed a fight to remember.

In fact, this fight was to me 10 times better than the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight because it simply had it all: tough encounters, lots of action, lots of contact, one spectacular knock out and 2 fighters with different style giving everything they ‘ve got until the very last round.

It was definitely worth the money to watch.

Adrien Broner came again as the hot favorite declaring himself as usual as the next emperor of boxing. After a short winning streak of 3 matches he thought that this was just the right time to go up in the scales and challenge again one of the top guns of the division. But it was too soon and too wrong.

Even if Porter is not as big name as others like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Pacquiao or even Mayweather, still he is a genuine contender and definitely not worse than Marcos Maidana (Broner’s last loss).

The fact is that Porter came into this fight determined not to make again the same mistakes of the fight against Kell Brook. In that fight Porter was schooled by Brook and lost rightly.

But defeats except from bad moments can bring important lessons to us all and it seems that Porter learnt an important lesson.

Each time Broner tried to clinch him or grab him, Porter would punch his way out. This tactic also led Broner to get finally deducted one vital point in the 11th round when referee Tony Weeks took a point off due to Broner’s excessive holding.

Obviously the money offered in this division couldn’t leave Broner unemotional even if he is not so suitable for it.

Unlike Mayweather, Broner has not the same boxing awareness and reflexes. His defense has flaws and was once more exposed. I think if he continues to fight against big punchers he will continue to have problems unless he makes big adjustments.

The winner of the fight Shawn Porter is an extremely hardworking man in the gym, he rarely misses days, rarely gets distracted and that seems to pay off. Also his good relationship with coach and dad Ken Porter seem to help him even more to catapult into the difficult but very rewarding welterweight division.

I see good things happening for Porter in the near future because he has the right skills, mentality and attitude.

Sportsmanship factor: This was a big thumbs up comparing to what followed after the Pacquiao- Mayweather fight.

Here both fighters, winner and loser showed mutual respect. A big applause to both of them.



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