Shawn Porter is in the mood for storytelling. And at first, this had nothing to do with boxing.
When Shawn Porter was about 10 years old, he was playing back-to-back during a soccer game when his father, Kenny, coached on the sidelines. In one play, a defender leveled Shawn, hurled him into the air, and shoved him over the line. Shawn smiled.
Well, not for long. Shawn recalls how Kenny picked him up with shoulder pads, and yelled at him the instructions that have stuck with him to this day — “Tell him to bring it more,” recalls Shawn. .
When Porter finishes telling the story, it’s clear why he’ll be in the ring this Saturday against rival heavyweight undefeated Terence “Bud” Crawford (9 p.m. ESPN+ PPV), who has long been considered one of the best boxers in the world.
Porter has shown a willingness to take on the biggest names in the welterweight division throughout his career. In many ways, he’s been stingy to the boxing champions and the entire 147-pound weight division.
It’s not random. That’s the only way Porter knows how to operate.
“It’s like part of my makeup,” Porter told ESPN. “It’s like who I am. The only thing I know is, ‘Who’s the target, who’s the best? Go get him.'”
The most decisive factor of the current welterweight era is the inability to make the best of the match – Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) against undefeated champion Errol Spence Jr. During a virtual press conference last week, Crawford said that the fight he has been chasing is behind, as all efforts up to this point have been futile.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, after Saturday’s bout, Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) will face all three current weight champions as of Saturday – Crawford, Spence and Yordenis Ugas, with the latter representing Porter’s only victory against that trio to date. And much of that involved an unflinching determination that his opponents could recognize.
“Shawn Porter is not the type to ‘pick’ you,” says Crawford. “He will fight anyone and it has been proven that he will fight anyone. That’s how you pretty much sum up who he’s fighting, because he fought. against all the top heavyweights in the division.”
Porter’s association with top boxing champions helped him secure big fights. Crawford, who is in the final bout of his contract with the First Division Championship, has faced a PBC fighter for the first time since he competed in the 147-pound division.
But that match was also a manifestation of the aggressive style that has rocked opponents throughout his career. Porter recalls his first amateur fight at the age of 8, when Kenny Porter told him he needed to throw punches “until they turn the lights out” to guarantee victory.
Over time, as father and son stormed the country, climbed the ranks of the amateurs and then launched a successful professional career, that belligerence was Porter’s calling card. It also makes him a fan-friendly fighter and one who will always perform well.
“It’s almost like it’s double, man,” Porter said. “It’s an automatic weapon to entertain fans but also an automatic weapon for success in the ring.”
That approach was also the downfall of Porter in a 2014 loss to Kell Brook, who was the only other boxer to face off against both Spence and Crawford. Brook used Porter’s aggression against him when he let the Ohio native lose his first professional loss.
It’s probably the best version of Brook, who hasn’t quite been the same since he suffered a serious eye injury in a loss to Gennady Golovkin in 2016. In his most recent match, a years ago this week with Brook, Crawford needed just four laps to maneuver him with TKO.
Kenny Porter, who still coaches Shawn, said: “I know people like the comparison between us fighting him and Terence fighting him (in 2020). “I believe when we fight him, he’s a different fighter.”
The tough matches throughout Porter’s career have instilled confidence and a deep pool of experience from which he can draw at key moments. He has also tackled almost every style one can see – an aspect he believes will give him an edge over Crawford.
A win would make Porter one of the greatest heavyweights of his time, not just a guy always ready to fight the best. But while the former is up for debate, there’s no question about the latter.
Porter said: “As I get older and people are saying, ‘Well, you keep fighting people, why are you doing that?’ I said, “This is boxing. This is what you have to do, right?”
At his core, Porter is still the backrunner, who comfortably lowers his shoulders, through anyone who gets in his way. That means taking on Crawford on another search and destroy mission that has made him unique for his time.
“You’re looking at Bud and Bud as the ‘fraudster,'” Porter said, using his finger to mimic the quotation marks at the end of the phrase. “Or Bud is the one that no one can beat, the most fearsome and the most avoidable and all this and that.
“I was the kid on the sidelines who just got hit and I thought, ‘Okay, who’s next? Where is he? I’m here.'”
