Shawn Porter isn’t surprised Errol Spence Jr. has predicted that he’ll knock out Porter on Saturday night.
Porter respects Spence’s confidence in his power and recognizes his heavily favored, unbeaten opponent is supposed to make such bold statements while promoting their fight. The WBC welterweight champion didn’t predict a knockout victory of his own, yet Porter also feels he is capable of knocking out Spence in their 12-round, 147-pound championship unification match at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“If you’re asking me if I am gonna knock him out, or if I wanna knock him out, heck, yeah,” Porter said during a recent conference call. “Do I have what it takes? Heck, yeah. And I think that we’ve come up with a great game plan, and we definitely at some point will be looking at pressuring him and knocking him out.”
The rugged Porter figures to try to rough up Spence, who hasn’t been noticeably hurt during any of his 25 professional fights. Las Vegas’ Porter sees defensive deficiencies in the strong southpaw that he feels he can exploit in their FOX Pay-Per-View main event.
Porter (30-2-1, 17 KOs) declined to discuss specifics regarding strategy, though he is certain he owns physical advantages over the taller, technically sound Spence (25-0, 21 KOs).
“I think my speed and my quickness against Errol Spence is definitely gonna be superior,” said Porter, who has lost only 12-round decisions to Kell Brook (majority) and Keith Thurman (unanimous). “I think my foot movement is superior. And I think it’s gonna open up a lot more opportunities. … Yordenis [Ugas], in the ring with me, I think he was a little confused. He was expecting me to have a different style than I came to him with, and I think that really shook him up. You know, a lot the same, I’m expecting to shake up Errol Spence.”
Spence doesn’t expect Porter to attempt to out-box him in the way he did against Ugas (24-4, 11 KOs). Porter’s surprising strategy in that bout appeared to give Ugas a better shot at upsetting him.
Porter won a split decision versus Ugas on March 9 in Carson, California, in what was his first defense of the WBC crown. Spence, of DeSoto, Texas, dominated Mikey Garcia in his last bout, but Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs) jumped up two weight classes, from lightweight to welterweight, to challenge the IBF champ March 16 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
