Shawn Porter is all about abiding by a philosophy of showing, not telling.

The former welterweight titleholder recently caused a furor on social media after comments he made about contender Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis were widely disseminated. On his eponymous podcast, The Porter Way Podcast, Porter stated that Philadelphia-based Ennis, regarded as a rising force within the 147-pound ranks, was “overrated” in the sense that certain fans were going overboard with their praise. 

“Boots is overrated, and this is why I say he’s overrated. Everybody is so hyped up on him, but he hasn’t been in the ring with any world champion yet,” Porter said. “Don’t forget I’m the one that said that this dude is the closest thing we got to Roy Jones. I’ve said that, I’m on record. I believe that, but at the same time every name that you throw out ‘Boots will smash him, Boots will smash him' – damn, like, let the fight happen and say ‘Boots smashed him’ or ‘man, that was a great fight, Boots did well.’ But don’t blatantly [say] 'Boots will smash everybody in the 147lb division.’

“I believe Boots is overrated in everybody’s mind because the way everybody talks about Boots. Everybody talks about Boots as if he’s going to smash everybody that he gets in the ring with, not giving anybody a chance. ‘Ah, Terence Crawford don’t want to see Boots, Errol Spence Jr. don’t want to see Boots, [Yordenis] Ugas don’t want to see Boots.’”

Ennis (28-0, 26 KOs) was quick to hit back at Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs).

“I heard you @ShowtimeShawnP said I was overrated,” Ennis posted on Twitter. “You was just saying I’m ready & too much for these guys lol [thinking face emoji] And you said you won’t fight me [yawn emoji] but keep that same energy tho, If im so “overrated “come out of “retirement” & fight me….. Now people retire and I’m overrated!!”

In an interview Wednesday with FightHubTV, the Las Vegas-based Porter, who retired last November upon his title-losing effort to Terence Crawford, hardly budged from his stance when asked to clarify his controversial remarks. Porter added a bit of context to his original comments, but he largely stuck by his own guns. Porter’s issue, he reiterated, is that he believes the public hype for Ennis has gotten out of hand. What irks him even more are claims that the relative tenderfoot would “wash” welterweight stalwarts Spence, Crawford, Ugas, and Thurman, saying “he can’t rock with that.”

“I said what I said, I meant what I said,” Porter told FightHubTV. “When I used the phrase ‘overrated,’ I’m basically throwing that at anyone who does not follow the boxing game and has not watched Jaron Ennis since he was in the Golden Gloves…What we know about Ennis is all true. But what people say I’m not in full agreement with. I’m in full agreement that he’s the next [star]. I’m in full agreement with that.

“What I’m not in full agreement with is when people say he’s going to wash that fighter, that fighter, that fighter. I’m like, ‘Hey, this guy is going to be in some really great boxing matches. Let those matches happen. Don’t just put the stigma of him washing every fighter he’s getting in the ring with. Once a few people say that that’s what his reputation is. He is next, but I don’t think he washes the top three to four guys in the welterweight division.

“Honestly, he’s a problem. He might beat all four of those top guys, but for everybody to just say he’s washing them, he’s washing them, I can’t rock with that.”

Asked if he had any retort to Ennis’ response, Porter said, “I didn’t have nothing to say to it” and that “there’s really no beef.” Porter added that he is a fan of Ennis – just not of all his hype.

“If there was no Jaron Ennis ever, Shawn Porter would still have retired November 20th of 2021,” Porter said. “I am definitely a fan of his, a fan of his family, I definitely feel like he’s going to be next. At the same time, I’d rather the fights happen as opposed to the stigma that nobody’s got any competition for him. There’s definitely competition for him.”

As an analyst for Fox Sports, Porter realizes that getting blowback for stating his opinions is part of the trade.

“I’m there to do a job,” Porter said of his commentating work. “I’m there to give my personal analytical opinion. One thing that separates me from all the analysts out there in the boxing game, nobody taught me to be analytical. I’m just made this way. The way I’m on TV, is the way I am off TV.”

Porter said that he still believes that WBO titleholder Crawford (38-0, 28 KOs) and WBC/IBF titleholder Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), the presumed top fighters of the welterweight division, could potentially give Ennis a rude awakening inside the ring.   

“I know that he has the potential to beat [number] one, two, three, four in the welterweight division, but he also has the potential to go 12 rounds with all of those guys and not wash those guys," Porter said. “Beat those guys, and possibly lose to two out of the top four guys in the division.”

“If he were to lose [it would be against] Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.” Porter continued. “I think that those guys are very much so elite. Boots can outswim them all, but we have not seen him in the ocean with other sharks yet. We’ve seen him in the lake with old sharks, but nothing like the guys out there now.”