By Sean Jones: Shawn Porter says he expects to face the winner of the November 21 fight between Errol Spence Jr and Danny Garcia. Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) beat Porter (30-3-1, 17 KOs) by a 12 round split decision on September 28 last year.
The fight was close enough to where Porter, 32, and several boxing fans felt that he deserved the win.
It was a match that was decided by a knockdown that Spence scored in the 11th round that put Shawn on the canvas after he got nailed by a sturdy left hook.
Errol not interested in Porter rematch yet
Spence might not be too happy about having to fight Porter again so soon, as he said recently that his focus is on facing these fighters: Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford, and Keith Thurman. Porter would be last for Spence, and it’s unclear whether he’ll even bother taking that fight before moving up to 154.
It would be best for Shawn to redeem himself against a proven welterweight like Thurman or preferably Yordenis Ugas before pushing for a rematch with Spence. Porter’s match against little known fighter Sebastian Formella isn’t a good enough match-up to create interest in a second Spence-Porter bout.
On August 22, Porter is facing #9 IBF Sebastian Formella (22-0, 10 KOs) in an IBF/WBC welterweight title eliminator on Fox Sports.
The winner will be mandatory to the winner of Spence’s November 21 match against Danny Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs).
It’s unknown why the IBF and WBC agreed to sanction the Porter-Formella fight as an eliminator, as the 33-year-old German fighter Formella has never fought a world-ranked contender during his six-year pro career and he’s only ranked #8 by the International Boxing Federation.
Ideally, #1 WBC & #10 IBF Porter should be fighting a higher-ranked guy that Formella, and preferably someone that has experience against world-ranked contenders.
Spence is capable of making adjustments
“I saw some adjustments that I had in the fight with him, and I saw some adjustments he made in his fight against Kell Brook,” said Shawn Porter to Fighthype about Errol Spence Jr. “I have seen him make adjustments.
“He is a fighter that can make adjustments. I think in my fight, he was a little bit more one way than I’ve seen from him in the past, but he is a fighter that can make adjustments.
“And I think I was able to keep him off balance between the movement and the aggression,” Porter continued in talking about his loss to Spence.
“I think I had a perfect combination that night in being aggressive and using boxing ability. I think I was able to keep him off balance, and I could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t as comfortable as he tries to show when he danced during some rounds,” said Porter in talking about Spence.
Spence, 30, didn’t make adjustments in the Porter fight because he appeared to be trying to beat him at his own game by slugging in close. Errol took a strange approach to the Porter fight, electing to stay in close, slugging, and fighting his style.
Most boxing fans agree that Spence purposefully made the contest against Porter harder than it should have been, had he boxed him from the outside.
Porter would disagree with that, as he feels that the pressure that he put on Spence forced him to use the game plan that he did. Danny Garcia is someone that Spence will need to make adjustments against if he wants to keep from getting hurt on November 21.
Porter struggles against boxers
It’s hard to look at Porter’s controversial win over Yordenis Ugas last year in March 2019 and not think that Spence could fight the exactly same way to dominate Shawn the way he did.
Ugas out-boxed and outslugged Porter, but found himself on the receiving end of a controversial 12 round split decision. The boxing fans that saw the Porter-Ugas contest overwhelmingly had Ugas winning.
The talented Cuban fighter Yordenis Ugas did a better job against Porter than Spence did, and he showed the flaws in Shawn’s game in dealing with guys that can box.
Spence gave Porter a break by choosing not to box him the way he had Mikey Garcia, and that was really the difference that allowed him to stay in the fight.
But the thing is, Spence still beat Porter at his own game in outslugging him in close and hammering him with body shots until he wore down in the later rounds.
Porter had his trunks up high to limit the area where Spence could land body shots, but the tactic didn’t work, as the referee didn’t deduct points for his shots on the belt-line.
With Spence coming off his car crash last October, he would be foolish if he were to choose to punch it out with him as he did against Shawn.
Shawn says Danny Garcia is one-dimensional
“He wasn’t as comfortable as he tried to show right there, and he wasn’t as comfortable as he showed in previous fights,” Porter said. “He [Spence] won’t be off-balance. Danny Garcia is definitely a one-trick pony.
He’s going to come out the same rounds. Danny Garcia didn’t make any adjustments in my fight. He was the way we expected him to be from the first round to the last round.
“So when you consider that, you have to say that Errol Spence can make adjustments, Errol Spence can do different things in the ring. This is a fight that Errol Spence should win,” said Porter.
Danny can box and punch, but he doesn’t do well when he’s being crowded the way Porter fought him in 2018. Garcia still landed a lot of huge punches and made that a close contest at the end.
To hear Porter talk about the Garcia fight, one gets the impression that it was a total whitewash fight, but that’s not how it was.
The fight was close from start to finish, and Porter needed to take a lot of massive punches for him to get through the full 12 rounds to win the decision. Danny connected with bigger shots on Porter than Spence did, but he handled it well.
Danny not a huge puncher
“In my opinion, I think two things are overestimated with Danny Garcia,” Porter continued. “People talk about his timing.
“He has great timing, but if you’re doing the right things, you can do the things to keep him off balance and not allow him to catch that rhythm and timing.
“I was able to do that [against Danny Garcia], and the other thing is the power. We’ve seen him do some damage against some guys.
“Really lean some guys, but if you’re taking the distance away or if you’re smothering him or if you’re doing the right things, you’re taking the pop off the punch [from Danny Garcia].
I don”t think he has as much steam as people give them credit for,” Porter said about Danny. “I think what we’re lining up to do,” said Porter when asked if he’s going to be fighting the winner of the Spence vs. Garcia fight,” said Shawn.
Contrary to what Porter sys about Danny’s power not being massive, he is a big puncher. Porter did an excellent job of avoiding a lot of the shots that Danny was throwing at him by fighting him in close, and not letting him get leverage on his punches the way he wanted.
Garcia still hit Porter with some significant shots in their fight in September 2018, and he looked like the better fighter down the stretch in rounds nine through twelve.
Shawn wants Spence, Pacquiao, Thurman or Garcia
“I think that’s what makes sense. My dad and I were just talking about it,” said Porter when asked if he’ll be fighting the Spence vs. Garcia winner.
“Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence, and Danny Garcia, I think are the only four names that really make sense, but here I am fighting Sebastian Formella,” Porter said.
It’s too bad that Porter isn’t fighting a better fighter than Formella, as he’s not going to build interest between him and Spence, Danny Garcia, or Thurman. Those guys aren’t going to want to fight Porter if he’s taking easy fights against obscure guys like Formella.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-etXNeRNDDM
41-year-old Pacquiao probably won’t waste his time fighting Porter, as his roughhouse style is too similar to Jeff Horn for him to bother with.
Pacquiao won’t want to deal with being head-butted and elbowed all night long against Porter, as he’s too old to deal with a guy that is younger and heavier.
Thurman might be interested in facing Porter again if the money is right, but he’s not going to want to take the match if he doesn’t get paid top dollar.
What Porter should be doing is setting up a fight against Yordenis Ugas so that he can prove to the boxing world that his win over him in 2019 wasn’t a case of the judges giving him a gift decision, which is how people saw that one.