By Dan Ambrose: Shawn Porter’s father/trainer Kenny Porter says they’ve signed their portion of a contract for a unification fight against Errol Spence Jr. over a month ago, and they’re still waiting on him to sign his portion of the contract.
IBF welterweight champion Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) could be delaying because there’s interest on Golden Boy Promotions’ part in a fight between him and IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez. There’s a lot of money that Spence can make in a fight against Canelo Alvarez. The fan interest in a fight between Canelo and Spence would be huge. It would dwarf the lukewarm interest in a unification fight between Spence and Porter (31-2-1, 17 KOs).
There’s also the potential for Spence facing the winner of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Keith Thurmanfight on July 20. Waiting on the $20+ million that Spence could get in a fight with Canelo makes all the sense in the world. Spence gains a lot more from fighting Canelo than he does Porter. If Spence can defeat Canelo, that would make him a superstar, and it would open all kinds of opportunities for big fights.
“We were presented with a contract for the Errol Spence fight a month ago, and we signed the contract,” said trainer/father Kenny Porter to Behind The Gloves about Shawn Porter having signed for the unification fight against IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. “We’re waiting for Errol Spence to sign. So, he hasn’t signed yet, which to my understanding, he came out publicly and said he’s not going to fight in August. What he should have said is he’s not going to fight Shawn, because he didn’t sign the contract. We’re training and we’re prepared to fight Errol Spence. Errol Spence needs to sign the contract,” said Kenny.
This isn’t a great time for Spence to be fighting Porter. If Spence can get a bigger money fight against either Canelo or the winner of the July 20th match between Pacquiao and Thurman, he can make big bank.
“All of these Errol Spence fans, and all of these guys on Youtube videos, you guys need to get your boy to sign the contract so we can get the fight started, to get the fight announced,” said Kenny. “That’s what we’re waiting on. We signed the contract a month ago, and I’m quite sure I’ve heard enough times that Shawn is ducking or whatever it might be, but we’ve signed the contract. Out preparation is already in effect. As a matter of fact, we’re almost five weeks in, and we’re going into the sixth week of training now. We just want to know what the hold up is. Why hasn’t he signed the contract?” said Kenny Porter about Spence.
Porter is kind of tainted right now after his controversial 12 round split decision win over Yordenis Ugas on March 9. Most boxing fans thought Porter should have lost that fight. But even if you want to say he deserved the win, there’s no mistaking the fact that he didn’t look good in the fight, and barely won. Spence, 29, isn’t going to get much credit if he beats Porter at this point.
Shawn has unfinished business with Ugas, and Spence isn’t going to get the credit that he would normally deserve if he beats Porter at this point. The only positive that Spence will get in beating Porter is he’ll add another title to his name. It might not be much of a gain for Spence to capture the WBC title. The WBA strap that Thurman has right now is more valuable, and so is the WBO belt held by Terence Crawford. In this day and age, it’s more about facing the best fighters rather than collecting paper titles.
