By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Shawn Porter respects Keith Thurman, but believes he is more prepared to win their welterweight title fight Saturday night at Barclays Center.
Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) has fought a higher level of opposition overall than Thurman, particularly during the past 2½ years. The Akron, Ohio, native’s lone loss came against unbeaten IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook, who beat him by majority decision in August 2014. He also has recorded victories over three multiple-division title-holders in Adrien Broner, Paulie Malignaggi and Devon Alexander.
The former IBF 147-pound champion also feels his grueling training regimen gives him an advantage over Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs), the defending WBA world welterweight champion. He definitely sparred more rounds for this fight than Thurman, who didn’t start sparring until a month into camp to avoid aggravating a neck injury that caused a three-month postponement of their 12-round title fight (CBS; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
“I expect this to be a shock to his system,” Porter said following a press conference in Manhattan to promote their fight. “Most people don’t train like my dad and I train. We bring in the toughest of the toughest. We’ll be at the end of our camp, still training with guys that are 170 pounds. I trained with Demetrius Andrade for Devon Alexander.
“So we train very hard. We treat our training as if it’s a fight. If he’s not doing that in his training, which I don’t expect he’ll do – maybe he [did] – maybe [he found] guys who could push him the way I’m gonna push him. But if not, yes, this will be a shock to his system. I expect it.”
When asked if he thinks he can “expose” Thurman, Porter added, “That’s my job, to expose [him]. In order to beat him and win, I have to expose a lot. So I’m looking forward to this.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
