Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford are the two welterweights Kenny Porter most wants his son to fight.
Kenny Porter, Shawn Porter’s father and trainer, discussed those potential opponents with Larry Wade, Shawn’s strength and conditioning coach, during a recent Instagram Live interview.
“If you could give me the fight that we would want that would make a great show that night, Manny Pacquiao,” Kenny Porter said. “But, you know, let’s not stop at Manny. Obviously, you know, since we talking about boxers, you know, Terence Crawford. That would be an amazing fight. I love challenges, Shawn loves challenges, I know Larry Wade loves challenges, Barry Hunter loves challenges. I’ve done seen my son play cards and Monopoly and all that stuff, and he’s slamming stuff down. He’s a competitive dude. You know, you give him a mountain to climb, you know, he’s gonna do it.”
Shawn Porter (30-3, 17 KOs) said recently that he and Crawford had planned to meet in Las Vegas just before the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly halted all boxing business to talk about possibly facing each other this year. Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs), the WBO welterweight champion, hasn’t mentioned Porter prominently as a potential opponent since he defeated mandatory challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas (21-1-1, 17 KOs) by ninth-round technical knockout in his last fight, December 14 at Madison Square Garden.
The 32-year-old Porter probably would make more money for opposing Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) than Crawford. The Filipino icon is more interested, apparently, in battling IBF/WBC champion Errol Spence Jr. (26-0, 21 KOs) or former WBC champ Danny Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) in his next fight.
Kenny Porter hopes, however, that his son gets a chance to win the WBA welterweight crown from the 41-year-old southpaw.
“Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford, you know, 1, 1A,” Kenny Porter said. “You know, take your pick. Amazing fighters. You know, Terence Crawford is one of my favorites, if not the favorite fighter for me out there today. Amazing fighter. You know, Shawn Porter obviously is my favorite fighter. But, you know, Bud, dude is everything. He’s all that, you know.
“He can do it both sides, both ways, orthodox, unorthodox, soft, power, box, punch, defense, everything. Let’s put him in there with a Shawn Porter and see if we can disrupt that, see if we can change some of what he’s used to doing and make him uncomfortable. It makes for a great fight. It makes for a great fight when you go back to people saying styles making fights.”
If appealing pay-per-view fights against Pacquiao or Crawford aren’t available, Kenny Porter would welcome any one of three rematches for his son against current or former 147-pound champions.
“Of course, we’d love, me, gotta have the Errol Spence part 2,” Kenny Porter said of trying to avenge Shawn Porter’s split-decision defeat to Spence on September 28 in Los Angeles. “[And a] Shawn Porter-Errol Spence [rematch], we’ve gotta have that. And then, you know, there’s still, you know, the Keith Thurmans of the world, you know, and of course, you know, Danny Garcia is right there with everybody, doing what he does. So, all of these guys, when this gate opens back up, you know, we planning on being there and being ready to come right through there or whenever they say we can do it, kick that door in. We already been working.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.