By: Sean Crose
Wearing sun glasses and a black and orange gym suit, Shawn Porter addressed reporters on Saturday after his loss to Terence Crawford in Las Vegas.
“I’m prepared to retire,” he said. “I was prepared to announce my retirement tonight, win, lose, or draw. Even if it was a draw we had a date, they were telling us we’re going to have to do it again. I was not going to do it again. I’m announcing my retirement right now.”
This news was met with audible applause and well wishes from those in attendance. Porter, a former IBF welterweight titlist, had fought a full career against a veritable whose who of top competition. No one was demanding more of Porter Saturday night after Porter was stopped by the brilliant Crawford in the tenth round of their very close match.
“One of the guys I admire in this sport is Andre Ward,” said Porter. “I kind of hang on to every word that Dre says. I really admire him and everything that he’s been to this sport. We were in the back room about to do Tyson Fury – Deontay wilder 3. Someone comes up to him…and they said, ‘Cmon champ, you know you got one left in you,’ and he (Ward) says ‘why can’t I just have one more left in me?’ He said it all right there. Why can’t I just have one more in me and save it?”
Porter will have left the ring with a 31-4-1 record at 34 years of age, with his health largely in tact. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be in some really big fights against some really good guys,” Porter reflected, “and always have my health at the end of the night. With that being said, I knew that Errol Spence Jr was going to be my last fight. I knew that in 2017, I think it was, when he won his championship fight and I said that he would be the last one I fought.”
Still, after losing to Spence, Porter “felt like there was something else and something else was Terence Crawford.” This time, however, Porter was determined to keep his word to himself. “I said win, lose, or draw. it doesn’t matter. I’ve given this sport a great deal from the training to the competition, and then more training.”
Although he will certainly be missed by fight fans – he’s been one of the most exciting, brave, and nice boxers out there for years now – Porter has good reasons to enter a new chapter in life. “After you fought everybody at the top, what more do you do?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m not going to be a gatekeeper….that’s not the life that I want to live. I’ve never wanted to live the life of a fighter who fought into his forties.” And so the man named Showtime is exiting the ring.
“Now’s the time,” he said.