Shawn Porter’s father and trainer Kenny has come under scrutiny after a controversial ending to his son’s WBO welterweight title fight.
Shawn came out aggressive and tested Terence Crawford right up until the 10th round when he was dropped twice, with the second blow seeing Kenny intervene.
The two-time champion clearly wanted to continue fighting but Kenny deemed it in his best interests to stop the fight then as Crawford claimed the biggest win of his career.
The decision was backed by Shawn post-fight, revealing he had a shared understanding with his father when it came to throwing in the towel.
Shawn did though admit to being surprised by the call at the time.
“He’s doing what he knows he needs to do,” he said.
“I didn’t expect that. We’ve never had a conversation about that, we just kind of always had a silent understanding, but I didn’t expect it,” Porter said.
Boxing legend Andre Ward could sense at the time that Crawford clearly had the upper hand and was going in for the finish.
In that sense he backed the decision from Kenny but it was what Shawn’s father said in his post-fight interview that really divided opinion.
“He didn’t prepare like I wanted him to prepare, and that makes me say, ‘I don’t want him in that situation,’” Kenny said as the crowd booed him.
“He fought a great fighter, the guy’s super sharp, and he’s at a deficit. It’s like fighting this guy blindfolded when you’re at a deficit like that. I wasn’t going to let that happen to him.”
