by David P. Greisman

It had seemed as if Shawn Porter was late for Friday’s weigh-in for his fight with Paulie Malignaggi. The emcee kept calling for Porter to report to the side of the stage, and he hadn’t yet.

And when the time came for Porter to step on the scales, he promptly stripped completely nude, towels held up around him to cover him up.

He came in at 146.8 pounds, below the welterweight limit. But the questions came up: Did he have any trouble making 147?

“We lost the weight the right way,” Porter told reporters on Saturday night, following his successful title defense via stoppage win over Paulie Malignaggi. “And as we got on the scale, we just… we didn’t want to leave any doubt, any question. We got on the scale, stripped all the way down and were .2 light.”

Porter said he was not working out in the last moments before the weigh-in.

Porter is listed as 5-foot-7 on BoxRec.com and as 5-foot-6 on Showtime’s pre-fight tale of the tape. He had been a middleweight in the amateurs, a division that had a limit of 165 pounds, which is what he weighed when he made his pro debut in 2008.

He eventually made his way down to junior middleweight, and finally to welterweight. He won his world title last December with a decision over Devon Alexander. He’s now 24-0-1 with 15 KOs, and his next fight could come against mandatory challenger Kell Brook.

Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com