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By: Hans Themistode
With Shawn Porter and Terence Crawford engaging in a back and forth war, Errol Spence Jr. thoroughly enjoyed his view from his ringside seat.
A crowd of just over 11,000 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, routinely rose to their feet for the majority of the night. Although Crawford attempted to fight a patient fight, Porter refused to let him do so. With his nonstop pressure, Crawford was forced at times to bite down on his mouthpiece and fight fire with fire.
Though things appeared to be close, Crawford took over down the stretch. The WBO welterweight titlist flawed Porter with a strong right hand in the middle of the ring at the beginning of the 10th. After tasting the canvas for the first time on the night, Crawford immediately followed it up with a barrage of punches that saw his man hit the deck once more.
An infuriated Porter pounded his gloves on the canvas before climbing back to his feet. Though he appeared to be more than willing to continue his all-out war, Kenny Porter, his trainer, and father, waved the white flag and called a halt to their contest.
As Spence Jr. took in the sights, he was both bemused and in complete disagreement with Kenny Porter’s decision.
“His daddy stopped it too early,” said Spence Jr. to ESNEWS. “His daddy tripping.”
While Spence Jr. was puzzled by the entire ordeal, Kenny Porter refused to allow his son to absorb unnecessary blows. Following the dramatic and unexpected end to their contest, Kenny Porter revealed that his son hadn’t prepared the way he had hoped.
In fact, once Shawn Porter revealed that his showdown against Crawford would be his last appearance in the ring, Kenny Porter remained stone-faced and unsurprised.
With Porter’s official retirement from the sport, he was mere minutes away from walking away with the biggest victory of his career. At the time of stoppage, both Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld had it 86-85 in favor of Crawford. Max DeLuca also had it reasonably close, scoring it 87-84 in Crawford’s favor.
Despite all three judges viewing Crawford as the slightly better fighter at the time of stoppage, Spence Jr. revealed that his scorecard was slightly different.
“I had Porter up. Porter did good, I thought Porter could have won.”
