Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Shawn Porter stopped Andre Berto at 1:31 of the ninth round?
Porter used his fists. Porter used his elbows and head. (Amanda Wescott/Showtime)
?You see the way he fights. It could be a great fight again.? (Amanda Wescott/Showtime)
Saturday?s welterweight elimination bout at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, between Shawn Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs) from Las Vegas, Nevada, by way of Akron, Ohio, and Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs), the veteran from Winter Haven, Florida, was boxing at its most primordial. Despite centuries of progress, boxing at its heart is a blood sport.
By stopping Berto at 1:31 of the ninth round last night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, when referee Mark Nelson called a belated halt to an agonizing beating, Porter earned another shot at WBC/WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman.
Porter used every weapon in his arsenal. He used every trick in the book. He used his fists. He used his head and elbows. Porter?s infighting is a thing of beauty, if nothing beautiful to watch. His take no prisoners, do-or-die ethos is commendable, and if it?s legal all the better
Fighting out of the red corner in blue trunks trimmed in green and yellow, Porter fights as he fights. His bouts are entertaining if not by the book. No-holds-barred roughhousing is how he wins.
Berto, fighting out of blue corner in black and white trunks, was the underdog coming in. He told the naysayers, ?The harvest is coming.? Berto was correct. The harvest came and he was harvested. Porter was younger, faster, stronger and more accurate than Berto. Both men?s boxing was superb, at least round one. Berto might have done enough to steal the opening round.
The niceties were over when the bell rang to end the first. Throwing caution to the wind and whatever he could find at his opponent, Porter went to the body early and often. He repeatedly bulled Berto to the ropes. When he wasn?t firing off punches, Porter clutched and grappled while the fighters butted heads.
?I got to clean up those head butts,? admitted Porter after the fight. ?We tried to use the whole ring, but sometimes in the heat of battle, I?m a fighter and Mr. Berto is a fighter as well. Those head butts were just the two of us going in and fighting.?
When pressed by the irrepressible Jim Gray about the intentionality of the butts, Porter said, ?My intention is never to use my head as a weapon. This was just a very hard-fought battle by both of us.?
Berto drew first blood in the second round. Porter was cut over both eyes in rounds two and three. Berto only had a two-inch gash on his left eyebrow from an accidental head butt in round four. The fight was a bloody mess. Berto?s busted up early. He was down in the second and twice in the ninth.
?I have to give him credit,? Berto said, ?but he?s a rough fighter. He has great skills, but at the same time, he?s going to be rough and try to handle me any way he can. I got a lot of head butts, and he did, too. Shawn is a tough competitor. We had a good, competitive fight until the head butts got to be a little too much for me. But I thought it was a really good fight before that.?
It was good fight, if somewhat one-sided.
Now that Berto is out of the way, Porter can focus a second time on Keith ?One Time? Thurman, who was ringside and said, ?He is my mandatory. His team was adamant about the rematch, and now he?s fought his way to earn that. We just need to sit down and talk about it. He?s hungry. You see the way he fights. It could be a great fight again.?
When they first fought, at the same venue, Thurman won a razor-thin majority decision. Little has changed in eight months. Thurman is a thinking man?s fighter. Porter is a fighting man?s fighter. And their heads are less likely to collide.
?Me and Berto are different fighters,? said Thurman. ?There were a lot of head butts, but I know to watch out for that. Berto is a little more flat-footed than me, and that played in Shawn?s favor. They deserve all the credit in the world. He fought a great fight.?
