By Dean Berman: Errol Spence Jr. denies that he fought Shawn Porter’s game plan last Saturday night in beating him by a tougher than expected 12 round split decision at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The fight was clearly the toughest of Spence’s short seven-year pro career, but there was no doubt who the better fighter was at the end.
Errol won by a landslide in watching fight with sound turned off
Spence was trying to knockout Porter, and that put him in harm’s way. Watching the fight with the sound off, Spence won the fight a lot more convincingly than what many boxing fans thought. The combination of the Fox commentators, who were complementing Porter constantly, and the cheering crowd, made it appear Porter did better than he actually did.
With the sound off, Porter won only two rounds on this writer’s scorecard. Even that was a stretch. Porter’s best rounds were round 4 and 7. Those were both rounds where Spence landed the better shots. Porter was busier, but Spence landed the harder, cleaner punches.
Spence had the tired-looking Porter reeling in the last four rounds of the contest. The body shots that Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) had invested in early did the job of tiring out Porter. Another thing that helped Spence was all the wasted movement that Porter displayed. Shawn was often moving for no apparent reason and was on the outside, and looked like he more focused on trying to impress the audience more than he was in using a strategy that would lead to him winning the fight.
“I don’t think I played Shawn’s game plan [because] I said the whole tour and the whole training camp I was trying to get the knockout, and that’s what I was trying to do,” Spence said to Yahoo Sports News.
Spence to Porter: You’re not going to be on PPV after this
Porter: “I’m pretty sure I’m the one that sold this pay-per-view,” said Porter at the news conference after the fight. ”
Spence: “I doubt it, because when I came out [for the ring walk], everybody was cheering my name. You said that a while ago that Spence had more fans.”
Porter: “That was the people here.”
Spence: “You didn’t promote nothing. I was the one promoting at the Cowboy’s stadium. You wasn’t doing nothing. You a man with no land. Where are you going to fight after this? You’re not going to be on pay-per-view after this.
Porter: “You’re not the pay-per-view star that you think you are.”
Spence: “I bet my next fight is going to be on pay-per-view. The only reason you’re on PPV is because you’re fighting me. Sit down somewhere. You would not be fighting on PPV if not for me. You can’t even sellout an arena. What arena can you sellout by yourself? You need to take off your green jacket, because I just took your belt. I just took your belt. As a matter of fact, bring it over here.”
Porter wants rematch with Spence
Porter: “It’s fly, baby. It’s supposed to be.”
Spence: “You lost, and now I’m going to go beat up Danny Garcia, and then I’m going to beat Thurman, and then go get your boy Pacquiao.”
Porter: “Rematch.”
“He’s a strong kid,” said Porter about Spence. “We both came in to do the job. I think I had a little more than what he expected, but he handled it. Ain’t nobody ever going to go after him like I went after him,” Porter said.
Porter wants a rematch with Spence, but there’s no chance of that happening. Spence’s management at Premier Boxing Champions plan on having him defend against Danny Garcia next. They tipped their hand by having Garcia enter the ring after the fight to challenge Spence.
That was premeditated move. Unfortunately for Spence, there wasn’t a lot of buzz about Danny Garcia being his next opponent. That’s not the fight that the boxing world wants to see from Spence. There’s only to guys at 147 that fans want to see Spence fight at 147, and that’s Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford. Danny Garcia is in the same category as Porter. He’s someone that is no longer relevant.
Porter needs to turn his career around by facing Yordenis Ugas in a rematch, and try to beat him without controversy next time.
#SpencePorter was a fight for the ages!
Relive the best of our ALL-ACCESS stream from @ErrolSpenceJr vs @ShowtimeShawnP pic.twitter.com/BNubrZxnXS
— FOX Sports: PBC (@PBConFOX) September 30, 2019
