LOS ANGELES – Shawn Porter has fought a long list of accomplished welterweights on his way to this pay-per-view showdown with Errol Spence Jr.
Each of them was “missing something,” according to Porter. He hasn’t detected any such flaws in Spence, which is why Porter predicted that the unbeaten IBF welterweight champion will emerge as the toughest opponent of his 11 – year, 34 – fight professional career Saturday night at Staples Center.
The feeling isn’t mutual. Spence emphasized Wednesday that Porter will be “one of my toughest” opponents, not the toughest.
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That distinction belongs to one of the two boxers that have beaten Porter (30 – 2-1, 17 KOs), who since has won the WBC welterweight championship.
“I think under the circumstances, the Kell Brook fight was tough because it was my first time fighting overseas,” Spence said following a press conference at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown hotel. “You know, fighting the champion and stuff like that, and a lot of other factors overseas, where I stayed over there for two weeks. So, you know, it was a lot of just different things I had to go through just making weight and stuff like that, and eating the different foods I was eating over there. So, I think, you know, Kell Brook was my toughest [fight]. ”
Spence (25 – 0, 21 KOs), of DeSoto, Texas, knocked out Brook in the 11 th round to win the IBF 147 – pound championship from him in May 2017. That fight drew a capacity crowd in excess of 27, 000 to Bramall Lane, a soccer stadium in Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England.
Spence sent Brook to the canvas once in the 10 th round and once in the 11 th round. The strong southpaw was ahead on all three scorecards when referee Howard John Foster stopped their scheduled 12 – round bout (97 – 92 , 96 – 93, 95 – 94).
Brook suffered a fractured left eye socket in his loss to Spence. In his previous fight, a fifth-round, technical-knockout loss to middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin, Brook suffered the same injury, only to his right orbital bone.
Even though Golovkin battered Brook (38 – 2, 26 KOs) in the bout before Spence beat him, Porter doesn’t think that diminishes Spence’s accomplishment in his first title fight.
“You can’t take anything away from him,” Porter said. “He still went over into a hostile environment… and he took the belt from a champion. Really, the only thing I take from that is he is a dominant fighter, he believes in himself and he’s always willing to figure it out. ”
Brook beat Porter by majority decision to win the IBF welterweight title from him five years ago at StubHub Center in Carson, California. Porter later lost a close unanimous decision to Keith Thurman in June 2016 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Akron, Ohio, native also has beaten former champions Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, Devon Alexander, Andre Berto and Paulie Malignaggi. Porter’s impressive resume notwithstanding, handicappers have installed Spence as a 10 – 1 favorite as their FOX Sports Pay-Per-View main event nears.
Keith Idec is a senior writer / columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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