By Jeff Aronow: Shawn Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) came close to beating IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. (26-0, 21 KOs) in their thrilling unification bout last Saturday night at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. Spence said after the fight that he can’t let his weight “get out of control” in between contests. He cannot continue to blow up more than 25 pounds between fights. Spence hints that he lost over 25 pounds during training camp for the Porter fight
Errol’s punching power has disappeared
The shots that Spence landed on Porter last night looked weak and ineffectual. It wasn’t just a case of Spence not landing cleanly enough for him to hurt Porter. Those shots from Spence landing on the button, but they didn’t have the power on them to hurt Porter. Spence looked like a fighter that had just gone through a long fat farm level training camp.
Spence, 29, won the fight by a 12 round split decision, but he lost a lot of credibility in the eyes of the boxing public with his performance.
Spence complains about his weight
“Got to keep my weight in control for now on ain’t nothing cool about blowing up 25+ pounds an having to spend camp losing that s–t,” said Spence on his social media site after the Porter fight.
Spence looked huge before he started training camp several months ago to begin preparing for the Porter fight. Porter mentioned Spence’s weight, and felt it was going to be a potential problem for him in this fight As it turns out, Porter was right. Spence looked weak, and drained during the fight. Spence’s normally powerful shots had no effect on Porter.
Second consecutive fight Spence has failed to KO his opponent
Spence failed to knockout lightweight Mike Garcia last March in his previous fight. A lot of boxing fans wondered what happened to Spence’s power, because he should have been able to knockout a fighter that was so much smaller and weaker than him.
If Spence isn’t going to dedicate himself to training in between fights, he’s going to need to seriously consider moving up to 154 to start campaigning as a junior middleweight. There are better fighters than Porter in the welterweight division. If Spence is struggling against the likes of Porter, then what happens to him when he faces Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford, Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman? If you’re Crawford and Pacquiao right now, you’re likely licking your chops after seeing how beatable Spence looked last Saturday night against Crawford.
Given how big Spence is, he needs to consider moving up in weight to the 154-lb weight class. Losing over 25 pounds for a training is too much weight loss, and it’s not good for him.
Thanks everybody who tuned in @ShowtimeShawnP tough ackward strong mf showed me a lot more than I thought lol #SpencePorter
— Errol Spence (@ErrolSpenceJr) September 29, 2019