One of boxing’s biggest fights of the year went down last night and it ended any negative discussion about boxing’s future.
In what could be the fight of the year, Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter went toe-to-toe in a highly anticipated, and equally as heated, welterweight championship battle last night in front of a packed Staples Center crowd. After twelve rounds, Spence came out on top, unifying the IBF and WBC belts.
“It feels good to win,” said Spence in a press release. “This is a lifetime dream. It shows hard work pays off. Thanks Shawn Porter, my whole team and all my Texas people for coming out.”
While most predicted Spence would win the fight, this was no gimme as Porter’s style is difficult for every opponent, especially as he never stops coming forward. When you couple that with the power that he brings with him, it becomes a dangerous pairing, and that held true again in last night’s battle.
But to Spence’s credit, he held off Porter’s pitbull like charges and returned a few power shots of his own, including a knockdown of the former WBC champ in the eleventh round, one which many felt was the deciding factor in Spence’s win.
What. A. Punch. 😵@ErrolSpenceJr knocked down Porter in the 11th with this HUGE left hook to the chin en route to a split decision victory! #SpencePorter pic.twitter.com/41blsioONV
— FOX Sports: PBC (@PBConFOX) September 29, 2019
“He’s a strong kid,” said Porter. “We both came in to do the job. I think I had a little more than what he expected, but he handled it. Congratulations to him and his team. We’re proud of what we did.”
In rounds four and eight, Porter looked like he was hurting Spence, landing a few heavy blows that seemed to have Errol shook up. But Spence recovered in that eighth round, found his rhythm and delivered the 11th round knockdown with a quick, yet vicious, left hook.
The final round brought out the remaining fury that each fighter had going into the fight, with flurries of punches being thrown by both fighters in a round that had the Staples crowd on their feet.
In the end, the fighters were almost dead even in punches thrown (745 to 744 for Spence) and punches landed (221 to 172 for Spence), but that knockdown weighed heavily in Spence’s favor. And although it was a surprising split decision, with one judge calling it 115-112 for Porter and the other two scoring it 116-11 for Spence, the win for Spence was the correct one.
The two men gave the fans what they paid to see, and it failed to disappoint in every way. Even after the fight, the fireworks continued as Danny Garcia jumped into the ring and called out Spence, followed by a heated post-fight presser that saw family and friends agitate the situation into a ridiculous scene of jarring and chanting.
So the end of the #spenceporter presser went off the rails pic.twitter.com/M49iey7xCL
— Robert Littal BSO (@BSO) September 29, 2019
But Spence vs. Porter gave us all what we wanted to see, and proved that boxing’s future is bright.
