By: Shakeria Hawkins
@ShakeriaHawkins
Shawn Porter isn’t convinced that Danny Garcia wants to have a toe-to-toe center of the ring type of fight.
“That’s maybe where he thinks that he can win the fight. So whatever the case may be, that’s not what I’m prepared to do. The number one opponent to this game is you get hit, I get hit. We’re going to try to keep it as clean as possible. It gets a little rough sometimes, but if you can’t stand the heat then get out the kitchen,” said Shawn Porter at his public workout in Las Vegas.
This Saturday on September 8th, former welterweight champions Danny “Swift” Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) and Shawn “Showtime” Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) will face off for the WBC’s vacant 147-pound world title on PBC on Showtime at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Although Garcia is the favorite to win the bout, Garcia vs. Porter seems to be pretty evenly matched. As fight night approaches, countless boxing experts and fans’ predictions are surfacing with mixed emotions between the two elite welterweight contenders.
On April 24, Keith “One Time” Thurman vacated his WBC title, forcing the organization to mandate Porter vs. Garcia for the vacant title. Both Porter and Garcia have experienced devastating career losses against Thurman. Thurman defended his WBA World Welterweight Title against Porter in 147-pound bout at Barclays Center on June 25, 2016. Thurman claimed a split decision against Garcia on March 4, 2017, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“This is the top; this is the top. I ready did think that Keith Thurman was the top and I still think that, and in a lot of ways that match brought a lot out of me and I brought a lot out of Keith as well, but I think this is the same kind of fight. I think if either one of us come in there slipping at all, slow at all, second-guessing at all, hesitating at all the tables can turn,” said Porter when asked out of all his title fights in his career how does he assess this challenge.
The welterweight fighters Porter and Garcia have both had their share of trash talking leading up to this point. Porter says that the trash talking has been fun up to this point, but he is done.
“There are no rebuttals from him that I can see and I when I not getting that I’m not getting the reaction that I wanted. I did do one post and he called me a clown and that’s the reaction that I wanted, since then I haven’t got much so what the point you know,” said Porter if there was any bad blood between himself and Garcia.
All trash talking aside, Both Porter vs. Garcia is definitely one of the closest matchups of the year. Porter was asked if everything goes planned on Saturday where does he see himself ranked in the division among Crawford, Thurman, and Spence. Porter said that its hard to put Thurman in there since he has been inactive. Porter admits that its Spence then his self since Spence has been the champion longer.
“Business has to play its role, I do expect if this is a fight that I want and a fight that he wants the business will take care of itself with no problems,” said Porter when asked about fighting Errol Spence if he becomes victorious Saturday night.