Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) is ready to fight his childhood friend Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) on June 25 in Brooklyn for his WBA welterweight title, and has wanted it for a long time.
At a press conference in NYC, Porter conducted a media scrum to answer questions from the press.
“I want to be the biggest out here,” Porter explained about getting a big fight like this. “I want all eyes on me when I fight. I want the spectacular night and the big crowd and all that stuff. To know that I am getting that, it just warms my heart and pushing me to keep going.”
A fight with Thurman has been in the works for some time, and will be an interesting clash for both competitors.
“This is a great fight. The styles make fights and I think this is a fight where styles make fights. I think I bring some things to the ring that are going to offset things that he can do and make it a good competitive fight that i will win.”
During the press conference, Thurman told Porter that he planned to knock him out, but Porter believes that is not going to happen.
“He calls himself “one-time” for a reason and… he believes that. But when he looked at me, he knows that it is going to be hard to get that one time off on me. He is not going to knock me out and I am looking forward to this fight.”
The two have been childhood friends, and Porter will be able to ignore those years of friendship in order to reach his goals and win the title.
“Him and I, we talked about this fight a long time ago. We knew way back then that we wanted this to be a historic fight, a historic night. And we both played our roles in this. We both continued to climb the ladder and do what we had to do. We both continued to win and put our name out there and people know us and they like what we do. the good thing about it is you get the best of both worlds in one night.”
“It’s not hard for me to put away our friendship at all. It’s very easy for me to put that aside and go after that win, that belt, and that prestige that comes along with all of that.”
“I noticed that he doesn’t work on the inside. I don’t know if he is going to switch it up and try to get off fast and then move or something like that. I’m looking, I always expect the best out of whoever I’m fighting, so if you had to put a stat on it, that slash for the body work goes to my side. but as much as that body work, I am going to try and get in and get in those head shots, offense and defense, the whole nine.”
“I think the smarter fighter wins this fight, not the tougher fighter, but the fighter with the most heart. I think that plays a role but the biggest role is who is smarter, who is going to throw the right punches at the right time, move the right way, etc. But I think that’s what makes this a great fight.”
Porter discusses plenty more things such as ring rust, when this fight originally was going to happen, and other topics.
You can watch this fight, along with Jesus Cuellar defending his 126 lbs title against Abner Mares, on June 25th on CBS starting at 9 PM EDT.
To see more videos from this press event, check out the playlist below: