This Saturday, Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter will unify their WBC and IBF welterweight titles at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA. It is one of the most talked-about fights of the year.
Before we begin preparing for the upcoming fight, let’s take a look back at how the fighter’s got here.
The WBC Title. Shawn Porter currently holds the WBC welterweight title. Prior to Porter, this belt was held by Keith Thurman. In April 2018, Thurman vacated this belt after receiving pressure to vacate as a result of his inactivity and unwillingness to defend his title. The WBC then mandated Shawn Porter vs Danny Garcia for the vacant belt. Porter won this hard-fought matchup by unanimous decision with official scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.
Since winning the WBC Title, Porter has had one title defense, versus Cuban boxer Yordenis Ugas in March of this year. It was an odd fight, where Porter didn’t look like himself, citing a desire to show off his boxing skills as the reason. Porter won this fight by split decision with varying official scorecards of 115-113 for Porter, 117-111 for Ugas, and 116-112 for Porter.
The IBF Title. Shawn Porter also had his hands on the IBF title, in 2013 and 2014. Porter won the title in 2013 versus Devon Alexander, and then successfully defended in impressive fashion versus Paulie Malignaggi. The IBF then ordered Porter to make a mandatory defense against Kell Brook. The fight took place at the (then) Stub Hub Arena and Brook won by majority decision, with scorecards of 117–111 and 116–112 for Brook and 114–114 by the 3rd Judge. Kell Brook then held the title until May 27, 2017, when Errol Spence Jr. went to Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England, and beat him in front of 27,000 fans. Spence fought ferociously, forcing Brook to take a knee, fracturing his eye socket and forcing an 11th round stoppage. At the time of the stoppage, Errol Spence Jr. was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards (97-92, 96-93, 95-94). This really put Spence on the map. He had successfully gone to England and took the belt back that Kell Brook had taken from Shawn Porter.
Since this time, Errol Spence Jr. has had three successful title defenses. First, versus Lamont Peterson, when he forced Peterson’s trainer Barry Hunter to stop the fight a second into round 8. Next, versus the unbeaten Carlos O’Campo who Spence knocked out in the 1stround and finally versus the unbeaten, pound for pound ranked Mikey Garcia who he washed, winning by easy unanimous decision.
Now it is time for the WBC and IBF titles to be unified. Tune in Saturday on Fox Sports Pay-Per-View at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time/6:00 p.m. Pacific.
Flip the page for the Faceoff between Spence and Porter.