’Showtime’ Shawn Porter improved his professional record to 26-1-1 with 16 KO’s last night by gaining the unanimous decision victory over Adrien Broner (now 30-2, 22 KO’s) in a scrappy, untidy affair in Las Vegas.
The 144 lb. catch-weight limit did nothing to diminish Porter’s stamina or strength even though it dragged him three pounds beneath his usual fighting weight.
He was explosive in closing the distance on Broner and winged away at the body and head as Broner endeavoured to tie up his arms and nullify his activity; a tactic that was increasingly ineffective as the rounds wore on.
In between prolonged bouts of holding, Broner looked for single counter punches and found sporadic success.
Even when he did land clean, there was little effect on the oncoming Porter, who got his punches off first for the majority of the night.
Aside from a flash knockdown suffered in the twelfth round on the end of a crisp Broner left hook -which was an incident that ran contrary to almost all of the action prior to it- Porter fought a disciplined, tactically astute fight against an opponent unwilling to engage at a high pace, and who instead looked to spoil instead of flourish.
The official scorecards read 112-114, 108-118 and 111-115 and after the announcement Porter commented on the highest profile win of his career so far, as reported on WorldBoxingNews.net
“That’s how you beat a great fighter intelligently. We did everything we needed to do in preparation for this fight.”
“Coming out we wanted to establish the jab and establish that we were the better boxer. I think we did that over the course of the fight and tried to stick in some pressure, as well.”
Porter put Broner in a defensive mindset by twitching with his feints when he was just outside of punching range and would suddenly spring forward into a predominantly static target when the time was right.
He worked the body consistently with arms that he wrenched free from Broner’s clamping grasp time and again; he made his physicality count.
“I think I did a good job and accomplished what I wanted to do. There were no surprises out there, I knew he would be quick to counter.”
“We established our dominance and that’s what got us those scores that we got and the win.”
As the scores were waiting to be read out, Broner walked across the ring for the handshake he refused to give Porter at the weigh-in before the fight and the two embraced with no incident.
But Porter’s father and trainer Ken was tetchy as he awaited the decision and gave Broner a shove as well a verbal remonstration.
Ken Porter is a particularly stern taskmaster and he voiced the flaws he saw in his son’s performance, but the fighter himself was optimistic after a good showing that went out to a huge viewing audience on network television.
“Honestly my dad wanted a quicker pace, a faster pace. And that’s why you have a corner. I think if I had listened to him better I would have fought a little bit better. There are things you can learn and things you can build upon.”
“We’ll see what happens after this. I made a good statement tonight on NBC and showed what I’m capable of.”
Porter has re-elevated himself to the position he held before losing his IBF welterweight title to Kell Brook last year.
Yes, he was facing a man who had come up from the division below, but in the ring, there was not much difference between them physically.
It was Porter’s dogged determination and focus that put him ahead of his loudmouth counterpart. Big fights surely await.
For Broner, it was a disappointing display. The lightening fast combinations were non-existent, and he would have surely had more success if he threw punches as often as he shook his head to the crowd to show Porter was not concerning him.
The knockdown he scored in the last round was a tiny glimpse of what he was capable of, but Porter remained unruffled, and Broner could not capitalise.
Broner will still attract a lot of attention if only for the polarising manner he conducts himself in and outside the ring, but he may want to stay in the light-welterweight lane from here on out if he wants to gain a fourth world championship.
