"Shawn brought so much heat to Manny, it's like they definitely have better fights in the gym than he had against Shane Mosley. My kid came away with no black eyes, no bruises, no busted nose or busted lips. If someone asks me how the sparring sessions went, I have a smile on my face because he did what he was supposed to do. That's the first thing. The second thing is, he's not a sparring partner. Let's not get that twisted. He is not a sparring partner...Going into that fight, Manny was obviously the champion. They ad Mike Jones at #1, Kell Brook out of England is #2, and Sugar Shane Mosley at #3. They had Shawn Porter at #4. I just got the update and Shane is gone and Shawn has taken the #3 spot...I would like to get 3 fights before this year is over. I like to keep him busy. And then, first quarter next year, somebody gotta accept this challenge because we coming," stated Kenny Porter, father and trainer of up-and-coming undefeated welterweight Shawn Porter, as he talked about their future plans and much more. Check it out!
PC: Kenny, Boxrec.com is reporting that your son Shawn will be fighting Stevie Forbes on June 17th in Texas. Is there any truth to that?
KP: (Laughing) Well, since you're the first person to ask us, you will be the first one to get the answer. Sometimes it just works out that way, huh? We turned down that fight over 3 weeks ago, not because of the fight or the fighter, but because we had already been working on doing a promotion in our hometown at Shawn's high school. It's a community event for the 4th of July, so we are involved with that, which is going on in our city in Stow, Ohio, a suburb of Akron. We turned that fight down over 3 weeks ago with a very professional letter I might add that was sent out to our promoters which basically said, "Thank you, but no thank you. We already have an obligation and we've been working on this even for over a year." The offer they were making to us was not something we were going to do because we had already given our word. We had already given a commitment.
PC: It was the first time that I had seen it, but when I spoke to you earlier and we set up the interview with Shawn, I wanted to see what he had coming up and there it was.
KP: I think it's absolutely ludacris that someone would go ahead and put something like that up after we told them in writing, thank you, but no thank you, and stated our reasons why we could not do it. And also, we had a follow-up conversation after that explaining our position. I'm just going to take a guess and say that somebody is trying to sell some tickets.
PC: I agree. Three week's notice seems like more than sufficient time to remove any doubt that the fight wasn't going to take place.
KP: The fight was never even on the table for us. It just came up in the last few days. We never accepted the bout. It was never accepted from the start. It was never even open for consideration. We had been working with our community and the mayor of our city in conjunction with the fire department and police department for Independence Day. We had been working with them for over a year on this, so that was never even open for consideration. It wasn't anything that we discussed or negotiated. It never even got to any opponent. It was never on the table or under consideration. At the risk of sounding cliché, boxing can be bad business. Things change, but things stay the same. I would be remise if you were speaking to Shawn right now and he allowed that charade to go on. He didn't know anything about that and you shocked him when you asked him about that fight. It wasn't up there when I was checking a couple of weeks back, so now they wait until now to post that. It was something we never entertained. Now what I do know was while we were still in camp with Pacquiao and turned the fight down, they offered the fight to Karim Mayfield, who signed to Prize Fight, who is our promoters, and Karim Mayfield accepted the fight. So again, I'm gonna take a guess and say somebody is trying to sell some tickets. It's kind of crazy. Have you ever seen Karim Mayfield?
PC: Yeah, I met him out in Vegas for the Pacquiao-Mosley fight.
KP: Pretty close to Shawn's height, weight and skin complexion; same physical build. They favor each other in a lot of ways. Karim said himself people come up to him all of the time and say he looks like Shawn Porter. Now is it a coincidence that they signed him when we said no to the fight? It wasn't a coincidence at all. They knew that they had put their foot in their mouth telling ESPN that we had took that fight and that we accepted that opponent and we accepted the date, and we never did. And when they came to us with it, we said, "No, thank you." It never got to the opponent. I said, "If you got something for us before or after our event, 6-8 weeks after the 4th of July or 6 weeks prior to, we would go." And they didn't have anything. They moved on this and that's their situation to deal with, but then they try to cover their own asses by signing Karim Mayfield. While we were still in camp, they signed him.
PC: Is there anything you want to add before I let you go Mr. Porter?
KP: One thing is, Shawn brought so much heat to Manny, it's like they definitely have better fights in the gym than he had against Shane Mosley. My kid came away with no black eyes, no bruises, no busted nose or busted lips. If someone asks me how the sparring sessions went, I have a smile on my face because he did what he was supposed to do. That's the first thing. The second thing is, he's not a sparring partner. Let's not get that twisted. He is not a sparring partner. It just so happens you're talking about an incredible boxer in Manny Pacquiao who has fought in 12 different weight classes with 8 titles and we have an opportunity to work with that guy and have Freddie assist me with Shawn. Shawn is working. When he's in the ring with Manny, I get to go up against the best trainer out there today and I get to try to outsmart him, outthink him, and out-strategize him. And that gets me prepared for my fights. It's an excellent situation. Going into that fight, Manny was obviously the champion. They ad Mike Jones at #1, Kell Brook out of England is #2, and Sugar Shane Mosley at #3. They had Shawn Porter at #4. I just got the update and Shane is gone and Shawn has taken the #3 spot. That's in the WBO rankings. In the NABF, which is under the WBC, they just named Shawn Prospect of the Year, so we will be going to Atlantic City in about 3 weeks to receive that award for Prospect of the Year. so things are right where we want them to be right now. We will take this fight at home for[win] number 19 and then in 6-8 weeks, we will be going for National TV and if we can get another one off before the year is out, I would like to do that. I would like to get 3 fights before this year is over. I like to keep him busy. And then, first quarter next year, somebody gotta accept this challenge because we coming!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]