By Jake Donovan
Shawn Porter acknowledged ongoing talks for a desired title unification clash with a young thoroughbred, but would gladly settle for a super fight with an old lion.
The two-time and reigning welterweight titlist spoke candidly on what’s in store for his future during the most recent edition of Inside PBC Boxing on FS1, for which he serves as a co-host. During the hour-long show, Porter revealed plans for a potential showdown with unbeaten fellow welterweight titlist Errol Spence.
“We’re working on it, at least in my mind,” Porter revealed. “I’m always the last to get the news but to me it’s still going on. Negotiations are going on and that takes a while.”
All the while, he remains hopeful that the phone would ring for a shot at future Hall of Famer and current secondary welterweight titlist Manny Pacquiao—though also recognizing that such a fight remains a long shot.
“At this point, Manny’s been up against it all,” Porter rightly noted of the legendary Filipino southpaw. “It’s a matter of him fighting the right opponent he can beat.”
Pacquiao—who made his PBC debut with a 12-round win over Adrien Broner this past January—has stalled in announcing plans for his next fight. The insistence was that he was waiting out the April 20 primetime installment of PBC on Fox, in wanting to scout out former two-division titlist Danny Garcia who stopped Adrian Granados in seven rounds.
The suggestion sounded like a red herring, as Pacquiao’s name has been linked to a planned mid-July Fox Pay-Per-View headliner versus Keith Thurman. The unbeaten welterweight titlist ended a near-two year ring break in returning this past January, albeit in a shaky performance in outpointing Josesito Lopez in the most-watched Fox telecast since 2016.
If it was a matter of picking whom is perceived to be the most vulnerable these days, it seems to be a no-brainer based on their most recent performances.
“I’m not saying he can’t beat Danny Garcia, but right now it looks like the opponent he’s most likely looking at is Keith Thurman,” claimed Porter, who had his own Fox-televised scare in barely outpointing Yordenis Ugas this past March.
It probably wasn’t enough to sway the wildly popular Pacquiao into picking him, though. Still, he remains ready for anything—including an expected clash with Spence, but hopeful for something just a little bigger.
“That’s how it goes sometime. You have to play the game, just stay in shape and stay ready,” insists Porter. “(Pacquiao has) earned the right to hold up the division. We want the fight ourselves. We’re all right there waiting.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
