by David P. Greisman
Shawn Porter spent two training camps with Manny Pacquiao, sparring with him as Pacquiao prepared for his 2009 fight with Miguel Cotto and his 2011 bout with Shane Mosley.
In a way, Porter feels that those sessions gave him some good experience he can count on when he faces welterweight titleholder Devon Alexander on Dec. 7. Their bout will be on the undercard to Zab Judah vs. Paulie Malignaggi at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and will be aired on Showtime.
“I got a lot of rounds under my belt with Manny Pacquiao and a lot of experience, but I think more than anything it just makes me comfortable against fighting a southpaw with some quick hands and some quick feet,” Porter said on a Nov. 12 media conference call. “It’s nothing I’ve never seen before, nothing I’ve never been in the ring with. … Manny Pacquiao is arguably one of the best of our time. I’ve gone toe-to-toe with him. I’ve backed him up. I made him literally fight me.”
Alexander (25-1, 14 KOs), however, feels that Porter (22-0-1, 14 KOs) having been a sparring partner won’t be to Porter’s advantage
“As far as him sparring Pacquiao, I’m not a sparring partner,” Alexander said. “I don’t go around sparring people. I don’t have that mentality. You go around sparring other fighters, you get that sparring mentality, like, ‘I can take a break. I need to let him beat me up.’ I don’t have that. I’m not a sparring partner. You can have all this experience in sparring and this and that, but this is fighting.”
Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
