Trying to be the boxer/counter-puncher sure seemed like an odd decision from WBC welterweight titlist Shawn Porter Saturday night in his defense against Yordenis Ugas. After all, Porter had become the poster boy for the “You don’t have to win, you just have to entertain” career philosophy over the last several years. Losses to Kell Brook and Keith Thurman actually helped his career as fans began to embrace the Akron, Ohio-born Las Vegas resident for his earnest efforts and the entertaining mauling chaos that he usually brought to his fights via crude elbow-flinging, head-thrusting, fist-launching come-forward offense.
On Saturday, though, Porter cast aside that innocent, likable, brutish charm in favor of a more cynical and cautious approach in dealing with his Cuban challenger. Conscious of tallying points and staying out of danger, he sucked the life out of a contest against an apparently battle-eager Ugas. Exactly contrary from what is to be expected from a Shawn Porter fight, there was little meaningful action, little fire, and, ultimately, little intrigue.
The biggest topic of debate after the 12-round decision was regarding the scoring. A legitimately tough fight to score, the judges were split on how to tally things up as two of them had Porter up by scores of 116-112 and 115-113 while the third had it 117-111 in favor of Ugas.
The fans at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California voiced their displeasure at showing up to a Porter fight only to have a sloppy Devon Alexander fight break out. They booed the “good guy” Porter and also the decision that brought him the somewhat questionable win.
“We wanted to outbox him and eventually turn it on and press him,” Porter said after the fight. “But my dad (trainer Kenny Porter) did not think that was the smartest way to win the fight. We fought this way for 12 rounds and no one has ever seen that from me before.
“I’m a little frustrated That I wasn’t able to get to the body as much as I wanted or as much as we had planned. As the clock ticks, you have to do what’s working. Tonight the foot movement was working and it made Ugas have to reset.
“We fought a good, smart fight tonight. I was consistent and I thought we won a majority of the rounds.
“The crowd was expecting a big brawl, but that’s not the way this fight needed to go tonight…We got the win, we’re still champion and we’re looking forward to what is next.”
Clearly with an eye on landing big-money bouts against Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao, and the winner of the upcoming Errol Spence-Mikey Garcia clash, Porter just wanted to get by his tough mandatory challenger, keep his title, and do what it took to win without running through too much risk. It was an un-Porter-like “win now, look good tomorrow” philosophy that he brought to the ring against Ugas.
But, ironically, Porter did more harm to his career and to his chances of landing a big fight in the fortune-heavy welterweight division by winning in this manner than if he had lost a barnburner.
The welterweight top dogs looking for a quality opponent might be more willing to sign up against the rough and fan-friendly fall guy than the cynical points-conscious title-grasper willing to muck things up in pursuit of a scorecard win.
Plus, of course, the fans may not be so receptive to this new Shawn Porter, either.
Quick (S)hits:
-- Yordenis Ugas lost nothing from this paper loss against Porter on Saturday — well, aside from the WBC belt. It was clear that the Cuban wanted the fight, sought the fight, and was hampered by a bunch of fight-killing stuff flung at him by the defending champ. Ugas, on any given night, could be a real headache for any of the 147 lb. top dogs.
-- Errol Spence vs. Mikey Garcia is just a week away and, as I’ve written previously, I wouldn’t be too confident of the Spence steamroll that many thought it would be when the fight was first announced. I’m on record as saying that Garcia will pull this off with a masterful boxing exhibition to take a surprisingly one-sided decision and I stick by that prediction.
-- And speaking of the welters, Terence Crawford-Amir Khan is about five weeks away and, while it’s not a “bad” fight, it’s a pretty pointless one. I just can’t stop thinking about how this whole welterweight dynamic would be different if Crawford was where he needed to be to get shots at Thurman, Spence, Pacquiao, etc.
-- Gennady Golovkin signed a 3-year, 6-fight deal with DAZN where, per Mike Coppinger of RingTV, he’ll reportedly be earning “eight figures per fight.”
On paper, this is all good and it looks like a Canelo-GGG part 3 is a sure thing a little bit down the road, but there’s one big question to be asked. With the streaming service already paying about $35 million per Canelo Alvarez fight and working to keep an ever-expanding roster of fighters financially happy, how, exactly, can they turn a profit on their slow-build concept already burdened by so much payroll debt? More from me on this topic later during the week.
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com