By Ryan Burton
BoxingScene.com recently caught up with undefeated IBF welterweight champion Shawn "Showtime" Porter. The Las Vegas based Porter recently reached an agreement to face former two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi on April 19th in Washington D.C. The Showtime televised tripleheader will also feature Bernard Hopkins and Beibut Shumenov unifying their IBF and WBA light heavyweight titles and WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillen defending his strap against Lukas Konecny.
In early March, Porter sparred with WBO junior middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade. Porter and Andrade's relationship goes back to when they competed as amateurs. Porter said that they both push each other whenever they set foot in the ring together.
"It was a great session. I trained with him for a long time, since the amateurs. We had some fun and got some rounds in. We both can't help but compete and bang when we get in the ring," Porter explained.
Porter can't wait to get back in the ring and make the first defense of his title that he won in December against Devon Alexander. The 26-year-old Porter also said that he wanted to fight Malignaggi last year and is excited to have the opportunity to face the former champ who also is a commentator for Showtime and FoxSports' boxing series.
"It is a fight we looked at a while ago before we fought Devon and we thought that it had passed when he fought (Adrien) Broner but it is obviously a fight that we want and that we feel we will win. I think I have some things in my repertoire that I think are a little bit more than he can compete with," Porter revealed to BoxingScene.com.
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