Go ahead and call Ken Porter non-traditional.
Because what the father of ex-welterweight title claimant Shawn Porter wants most of all this weekend has zero to do with striped ties, barbecue aprons or shopping sprees at Home Depot.
Instead, he told CBSSports.com, what the Porter men truly covet is family dissension.
The trainer/fighter tandem will head to the MGM Grand ring on Saturday night to face fellow former champion Adrien Broner, and, assuming all goes to plan in the scheduled 12-rounder, their post-celebration focus will immediately turn to the man Broner has long labeled a ?big brother.?
Fellow Las Vegas resident Floyd Mayweather Jr.
?When that fight’s over with we expect to say to the media, ?We live right down the street from this guy — one mile down the street from this guy — and he won’t fight us,’? Ken Porter said. ??We just beat up his fighter, his little brother.’ So yes, we do want to make a statement in every way. We’re not going to drive down the street and bam on the guy’s door and beg him to fight us. He’s going to have to man up.
?He’s going to have to decide if this is the way he’s going to end his career — on a spectacular high note — or if he’s going to go out against a quiet fighter who’s not going to give him too much resistance.?
Mayweather beat Manny Pacquiao on May 2 to keep a pair of welterweight belts, win a third one and push his career record to 48-0. He then insisted afterward he’d fight just once more — in September.
Ken Porter said Shawn would be ready if ?Money? called for a date, but neither expect to be asked.
?He’s going to totally ignore us,? he said. ?How do I know that? Because the first year we lived here in Vegas, we were on the same side of the street as him, about a mile-and-a-half away. I’d see him at the bank from time to time and I’d see him driving up and down the street — we’d be next to each other at the lights — and if he’d speak at all he’d say ?Hello,’ but that’s it.
?Now, we live even closer, we went on to win a world championship, and the whole time that we were world champion, other than the fact that he saw us in the airport and said ?Man, that was a great fight, congratulations,’ he chooses to let the sleeping dog lie. He doesn’t even want to act like we exist.?
Shawn Porter did share the welterweight stage with Mayweather from December 2013 to August 2014, during which Porter won the IBF title from Devon Alexander (UD 12), defended it against Paulie Malignaggi (TKO 4) and lost it to a still-reigning Kell Brook (MD 12). Mayweather, meanwhile, fought once in that stretch, defending the WBA and WBC titles in a rematch against Marcos Maidana (UD 12).
His defeat of Pacquiao earned him the WBO’s world championship.
Porter has fought once since the Brook loss, stopping Erick Bone in five rounds in March.
The Independent World Boxing Rankings at 147 pounds place Mayweather first and Porter seventh.
?If somebody’s that close to you — your weight class, your street, right down the road from you, world championship belt — you would think that you would consider acknowledging the fact that maybe me and that guy could fight,? Ken Porter said. ?But who knows? Here he is, in the gym with Adrien Broner, helping him get ready for us, maybe he’s trying to see what we’ve got and to see what would happen.?
The Porter-Broner fight, at a contracted catch weight of 144 pounds, will air atop a two-bout television card to be broadcast by NBC at 8:30 p.m. And though the Cleveland vs. Cincinnati main event is being hyped as a Buckeye State grudge match, Ken Porter is already anxious to pencil in the new battle lines.
Even more so, in fact, if Mayweather is in the building supporting his so-called sibling.
?We’re fighting the Battle of Ohio and we can go right from there to the Battle of Las Vegas, as far as I’m concerned,? Porter said. ?From one neighborhood to the next. We’ll be calling Mayweather’s name in the ring afterward, for sure. I hope he’s there to hear it, and it’ll be interesting to see how he responds.?
Weekend Watch List NBC — Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Adrien Broner vs. Shawn Porter — 12 rounds, welterweights Errol Spence Jr. vs. Roberto Garcia — 10 rounds, welterweights
BET — Saturday, 10 p.m. Andre Ward vs. Paul Smith — 12 rounds, light heavyweights
CBS — Sunday, 4 p.m. Rances Barthelemy vs. Antonio DeMarco — 10 rounds, junior welterweights Sammy Vasquez vs. Wale Omotoso — 10 rounds, welterweights
