By Jeff Aranow: Shawn Porter says that he liked the way Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxed Andre Berto in beating him by a decision 2 years ago in 2015. Porter (26-2-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting Berto in nine days from now on April 22 in a WBC 147lb title eliminator on Showtime Championship Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Porter, 29, lost his last fight to WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman in getting out-boxed in a 12 round decision defeat last June.
Porter was also beaten by Kell Brook by a 12 round decision in 2014. It looks like Porter has decided that he wants to change his aggressive fighting style to become more of a boxer. It might not work for him though, because it’s not easy to change a fighting style when you’ve been using it as long as Porter has in his 9-year pro career.
Mayweather easily beat Berto by a 12 round unanimous decision in September 2015. Mayweather beat Berto by jabbing him and hitting him with single pot shots all night long. In other words, Mayweather beat Berto the way he defeats everyone by just boxing them and focusing on not getting hit. However, as we’ve seen in the past, Berto (31-4, 24 KOs) can be beaten by other methods as well. He’s struggled against punchers in his losses to Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero and Jesus Soto Karass. Even Luis Collazo clearly got the better of Berto in their fight in 2009, but the judges gave the fight to Berto.
Collazo looked like the better fighter in this writer’s view. Berto was very lucky to get the win in that fight. But the important thing is, Berto struggled against a puncher. Porter might be selling himself short if he tries to change his fighting style at this stage in his career. Porter is about to turn 30, and it seems like it would be a crazy idea for him to make an alteration to his successful fighting style.
”Watching him fight, I definitely admired any fight that Floyd Mayweather is in,” Porter said this week. “His boxing ability — I thought that was something that was very, very effective against Andre Berto. So we’ll definitely pick our spots when we box, when we want to use the ring, but at any rate through the fight we will control the action as well as the ring.”
Porter can’t stand and slug with Berto all the time. He’s going to need to box him some of the time at least, but he should stick with his usual fighting style, because it’s what he does best. Porter almost beat Thurman and Brook by slugging. He might have been able to beat Brook if the British fighter didn’t get away with holding him all night long with repeated clinches in each round. What Mayweather used to beat Berto, Porter can’t use. He doesn’t have the same kind of hand speed and reflexes that Mayweather possessed during his career. It’s fine for Porter to sit back and admire what Mayweather did in his fight with Berto, but it would be crazy for him to try and copy him.
The World Boxing Council might have done better if they had picked 2 other fighters to fight in their WBC 147lb title eliminator fight. Porter and Berto are not the ideal candidates for the job at this point. Berto hasn’t fought in 1 year since his win over Victor Ortiz in April 2016. Before that, Berto hadn’t fought since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2015. Berto didn’t fight for 7 months until facing Ortiz in April of 2016. With all the inactivity that Berto has had in the last 2 years, he’s not the ideal guy to be fighting in an eliminator match.
Berto used to be a good fighter when he was younger, but he’s done very little with his career in the last 6 years. Berto’s record is 4-4 in his last 8 fights since 2011. That’s not the type of record that a fighter should have in fighting a title eliminator my opinion.
In Porter’s case, he lost his last fight to Keith Thurman by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in June. That was 10 months ago. The inactivity and the lack of success of Berto and Porter make them poor candidates to be fighting in an eliminator bout. Of course, Berto and Porter are better known than many of the contenders in the WBC’s rankings. That probably counts for a lot in them getting picked out for the eliminator fight.
“My boxing ability may be a little bit underrated,” said Porter. “It depends on what I’m in the ring with. You may get more of the boxing. You may get more of the pressure and being aggressive. We’ll take a look at what’s going on and we’ll make adjustments. You might see more boxing; you might see more pressure.”
Until Porter started to talk about his great admiration of Mayweather, I saw the Berto fight as a fairly simple one for him to win. Porter is younger, and he’s got a lot more in the gas tank than Berto. It’s almost like Porter is fighting an old semi-retired, part time fighter in Berto.
Normally, Porter should win the fight easily based on youth and aggressive fighting style, but I’m not sure he’ll be able to do that if he tries to pot shot and jab his way to a victory the way that Mayweather did in his fight with Berto. I think Berto has the faster hand speed in comparison to Porter. Berto used to be really fast of hand when he was a little younger than he is now. He’s slowed down considerably over the last 7 years. Berto still can punch with either hand. His power is still there, but he’s not nearly as quick as he was when he was a lot younger.
I give Berto a puncher’s chance of beating Porter on April 22. If Porter changes his fighting style to try and mimic Mayweather, then I think Berto could scrape by and win a decision. Porter will not be able to get the better of Berto if he tries to pot shot him and out-jab him from the outside. That would a really bad idea for him to even try that. Berto has the better boxing skills of the two, and Porter isn’t going to change that overnight if he tries to copy what Mayweather was able to do.
“That’s fine,” Berto said about Porter possibly using Mayweather-Berto as his blueprint. “It’s his game-plan, whichever way he wants to maneuver, whatever his situation is, that’s on him. Right now, we’re just preparing for every look, if it’s boxing, if it’s brawling, whatever the situation is. We’re not really focused on what he’s trying to do to us.”