Kenny Porter: Garcia Opted for Redkach Over Porter
On September 9, 2019, Shawn “Showtime” Porter (30-3-1, 17 KO’s) and Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr (26-0, 21 KO’s) fought in a violent and memorable prizefight that immediately named a fight of the year candidate. When all the dust had settled, Spence walk away the winner and thus was able to retain his own IBF strap while simultaneously stripping Porter of his WBC title.
Ever since this defeat, Showtime has yearned for a rematch so he could feast on a tasty cold plate of revenge. However, his mere wanting the fight has not been enough to secure it in real life. Although, for a brief moment, Team Porter did have a solid practical plan to get back to the Spence dust-up that they so urgently craved.
Ironically, the path to a Spence rematch was on the other side of another potentially hazardous rematch.
DID GARCIA SWIFTLY SIDESTEP PORTER?
This is why, according to Showtime’s father and chief second, Kenny Porter, Team Porter was pursuing a redo with Danny “Swift” Garcia (35-2, 21 KO’s). The two talented pugilists staged a very close and competitive bout back on September 8, 2018. At the bouts conclusion, Porter emerged with a narrow but unanimous points victory.
As can only be expected, Danny, along with his father and chief second Angel Garcia, have loudly decried the decision. Logic would suggest that if given the opportunity the father and son duo would have leapt at the chance to secure a do over. However, in an exclusive interview with Blue Blood Sports TV, Kenny Porter divulged that the Garcia’s had and willingly passed on the meaningful rematch.
“Yeah, let’s take a quick example, we could have been fighting Danny Garcia. He was the #2 guy, we’re the #1 guy. We could have fought him for the interim WBC title while Errol is out. That makes the winner the mandatory to fight Errol, there’s no interest on their behalf. They took on a guy [Ivan redkach] that I don’t think is, you know, worthy of the Shawn Porter or the Errol Spence or the Pacquiao or the Bud Crawford, he’s not at those levels.
But they took on that guy, they can say what they want to say but that’s what they chose to do instead of fighting for the interim that would put them in position to fight Errol and you get the opportunity to get the win back over Shawn. So it speaks for itself as far as that’s concerned.”
WHO’S REALLY THE MAN-DATORY?
Prior to the near-fatal car accident that Errol Spence Jr was involved in, he and Garcia were scheduled to face one another. Yet, after the crash, this bout went up in smoke. There was the common perception that Swift would still be in front of the line to dance with the Truth when he returned to the ring. However, this does not seem to be the case.
“[on Danny Garcia being Spence’s mandatory challenger] Absolutely not! We are ranked #1.
[when asked if Shawn was the mandatory] No, they haven’t decided who the mandatory [is], I’m hearing some different things. I don’t know exactly what that is at this point but you know this is a business. Its’ not something we’re in control of, so they make those decisions. But I do know that #1 and #2 could have fought for the WBC interim and then became the mandatory.”
Kenny Porter is not surprised that Garcia opted to avoid a second bout with Showtime. The elder Porter realizes that Shawn is a major problem in the ring and has long since acknowledged that after fighting him, few want to go through that type of ordeal again.
“Yeah, but fighting Shawn Porter is like skydiving. If they take you up there and somebody push you out that plane and you land on the ground safely, you say, ‘I ain’t going up there no more!’ So, you know, nobody really wants to do that twice.”
This new information does shine a brand new light on, and take even more air out of, Garcia’s upcoming January 25 prizefight with Ivan “El Terrible” Redkach (23-4-1, 18 KO’s). It’ll be enlightening to see who Shawn fights next and who Garcia faces after Redkach.
By: Bakari Simpson
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