By Allan Fox: Sbawn Porter maintains that he was two steps ahead of Errol Spence Jr. last September in their fight on FOX Sports pay-pay-per-view, and he believes that he should have won the battle. Porter thinks that he gave Spence a boxing lesson in the match, and he feels proud about his performance he put in during the fight.
Unfortunately for Porter, not all of the judges didn’t recognize his mastery of Spence as they gave him the victory by a 12 round split decision. The scores were 116-111, 116-111 for Spence, and 115-112 for Porter.
Porter, 32, fought well in the first eight rounds, but he gassed out in the championship rounds from 9 through 12, and Spence took control of the fight. The body attack that Spence put in paid dividends in the last quarter of the battle, given that Porter looked haggard, and he wasn’t able to fight with the same intensity that he had earlier.
In the 11th, Spence knocked Porter down with left hook to the jaw that had him badly hurt. From that point on, Spence controlled the remainder of the fight with his pressure and hard body shots.
Spence fight was the biggest challenge for Porter
“‘Why do they keep underestimating you in the ring?’ I’ll tell you why. Looks can be deceiving, and I’m just different,” said Porter in responding to a question on social media. “A lot of things about me that’s different are things inside, and I don’t think those are things you can measure.
“So I think because people can’t measure those things, they go by what they see. I think people recognize in boxing my intelligence and my intuition and my intuition that I use in the boxing ring, my reflexes, and my stamina. All those things you can’t measure, you can’t gauge, and you can’t say who has more or less of it until it happens.
“For instance, my fight with Errol Spence Jr. I think a lot of people thought he was the guy that was going to put me out. First of all, let me say he’s one of the great fighters. He just knows what to do, how to do it, and can really get down in the ring. But I knew some things about myself that not many people know.
“I think one thing about me is I love challenges. I thrive on challenges. When that fight was made between myself and Errol Spence, I took it as the biggest challenge there could be, and for me, I look at the big things and the small things,” said Porter.
The Spence clash was the toughest fight of Porter’ career by far. Though Porter had lost twice in the past against Kell Brook and Keith Thurman, no one had stood and slugged with him the way Spence did. Brook and Thurman both stayed on the outside and boxed Porter to beat him by decision. They didn’t keep in close and slug with him the way Spence did.
Porter: I was ahead of Spence majority of the fight
“Where you saw, I was a step or two ahead of him in the majority of the fight,” said Porter of Spence. “For those that don’t recognize that or don’t believe that or doubt that, then you’re wrong. I was a step or two the majority of the fight.
“I have a friend…and one thing he likes to do after fights is saying, ‘when did you have him?’ He’s asked me about a couple of different fights. Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, and this fight with Errol Spence.
“He looked at me and said, ‘You know you had him, didn’t you?’ He said, ‘When did you know you had him?’ I said, ‘It might have been the fourth or the fifth round.’ Floyd Mayweather is notorious for the pullback counter, and it usually works with the right hand. You pull back really quickly and come back with a counter right. I love that move by Floyd Mayweather.
“A lot of guys do that move because of Floyd. Nobody was doing that before Floyd. Not that I saw. But there was a moment in the fourth round, he threw a jab, and a quick pullback and a counter with a jab.
“That’s the elevation of the thinking. It was the fourth or fifth round, a pullback with a counter, pop,” said Porter.
The fight was evenly matched through the first three-quarters of the contest. It’s unclear where Porter got the idea that he was two steps ahead of Spence the entire 12 round fight because that wasn’t the case.
Shawn talks of “out-thinking” Spence
“I hit him, and when I hit him, he said, ‘Man, what the f***.’ He cussed, and I knew that I had hit him with something that he didn’t expect to get hit with, and I hit him with something where he knew he should not have been hit with,” said Porter.
“It let me know I was out-thinking him, and I was a step or two ahead of him. There’s always a moment in the ring where I know, ‘I got him,’ and that was the moment for me.
“Obviously, he came back with a big punch later on in the fight, which I feel sealed the deal for him. Congratulations to him for that. But for the majority of the fight, I was a step or two ahead of him,” said Porter.
Spence was hit with a lot of shots from Porter that would have given a lesser fighter significant problems. But the thing is, Spence was quick to hit Porter back with even bigger punches each time he was nailed. Moreover, you can’t overlook the body shots that Spence was hitting Porter with.
Although they weren’t as eye-catching as some of the headshots that Porter was landing, they still were effective at slowing him down. Porter did show a lot of skills, but in the end, it came down to Spence’s size, power, and superior endurance that got him the victory.
It’s excellent that Porter had his moments, but there weren’t enough of them in the championship rounds for him to win.
Difficult to compare Spence’s power
“‘Harder puncher Thurman or Spence?’ Both guys come in with one big punch,” said Porter on social media. “Outside of that one big punch, you’ve got to get in the ring with them. I don’t know who the harder hitter is.
When the adrenalin is going, and when you’re focused on your mission, you’re not thinking, ‘Oh, that punch hurt’ or ‘This guy hits hard.’ I really don’t know which guy hits harder. Obviously, you look at statistics and things like that,” said Porter.
Porter would love a rematch with Spence, but that’s not going to happen soon. We’ll eventually see these two back together after Spence exhausts all the fighters on his list that he wants to face. Additionally, Spence will need to take care of his occasional mandatory challengers for his IBF and WBC welterweight titles.
Porter had his moments
Going into the 9th, I had the fight even at 4-4. But from that point on, Spence just over completely with his body shots and hard punches to the head. Up until that moment in the fight, Porter had done an excellent job with his pressure and inside work. Spence’s body shots in the 9th took the wind out of Porter’s sails and had him fighting on fumes.
Spence looked hurt briefly in the fourth round from a counter right that Porter landed. However, Spence came right back and continued to land big shots to the head and body of Porter. In closing seconds of the round, Spence tagged Porter with a short uppercut that snapped his head back.
That punch was like a rocket from Spence, but Porter took it well. At the end of the round, Porter looked disappointed as he walked back to his corner. Perhaps he felt that he had missed his opportunity to knockout Spence after he had him hurt.
At some point, we’ll see Porter and Spence fight a rematch, but that likely won’t happen until 2022 at the earliest. Spence has already gone on record to say that he has four guys that he wants to face before he looks in Porter’s direction for a rematch.
Spence’s target list
- Manny Pacquiao
- Danny Garcia
- Keith Thurman
- Terence Crawford
