By Sam Volz: Shawn Porter believes that Errol Spence Jr’s ninth round TKO loss to Terence Crawford last Saturday night was just a small “wrinkle” in his career, and he thinks he can come in “stronger” for the rematch later this year.
Porter feels that Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) has the mental strength to make “adjustments” to his game to make it a different fight with Crawford in the rematch.
It makes sense what Porter says because it looked like he was not physically ready to fight at 147. He’d clearly taken off too much weight in camp, dieting, and running steep hills for miles in the sweltering sun.
The weight came off, but he was a drained shell for the fight. Obviously, Spence had taken too much weight off. He should have postponed the fight, but he wasn’t going to do that.
If it’s true, the rumors of Spence stating camp weighing over 200 lbs was far too much weight to take off to fight anyone, particularly a guy like Crawford.
“I speak from a fighter and a business perspective. He has to say, ‘I want to move up, and I want to have this rematch,’ and if he doesn’t say that, it means he hasn’t activated that rematch clause,” said Shawn Porter to TMZ Sports on Errol Spence Jr needed to say after his fight with Terence Crawford that he wants a rematch, which he did do.
If Spence were going to fight at 175, it wouldn’t have hurt him starting training camp at 200+ lbs, but not if you’re fighting at 147. That’s too much weight.
One hundred fifty-four might not be enough of a cushion for Spence if he can’t keep his weight down to a manageable level before December. If Spence balloons up in weight to 180+ lbs by eating fried foods and pure junk, he likely will get heavy again and be drained just as badly when fighting 154.
“Yes, he’s going to go home and talk to his team, and they’re going to really analyze it and figure it out. I’m an advocate for the rematch. I believe wholeheartedly in Errol Spence Jr.,” said Porter.
“I said from day one until the fight happened, ‘This is a 50-50 fight. Errol has the ability to make adjustments. He has the ability to come in stronger, especially at 154, and mentally, he’s so strong that I think this is just a wrinkle on his career, and I think he wants to fix that wrinkle,” said Porter.
Spence could be weight drained again, in which case he’ll lose the rematch with Crawford.
