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Kenny Porter's son, Shawn
defends his IBF welterweight title tonight at the D.C. Armory versus veteran
Paulie Malignaggi as part of Showtime's championship tripleheader. If Porter
should come out victorious, he'll most likely be lined up against more boxers
from the Golden Boy Promotions/Al Haymon stable and if he should keep winning,
eventually earn a place in the Floyd Mayweather sweepstakes.
But the father/trainer isn't
happy about how boxing's “Cold War” between Golden Boy and Top Rank will
determine their fate. Perhaps he's a hopeless optimist but he wants his son to
have an opportunity to fight on both sides of the street.
“I'm not happy with the way
things are at this point,” he told Maxboxing earlier this week. “We really want
to be able to fight the best and we don't feel we should be handcuffed to the
rest.”
So has he expressed this to
their adviser, the more-influential-than-ever Al Haymon?
“Well, I haven't had that opportunity yet. We won the title a short time ago in
December. It's only been about three months and this is our first title
defense,” said Porter, whose son won the title versus Devon Alexander at the
Barclays Center (and his math is off a bit; it's been almost five months). “So
we're kinda like understanding what we're dealing with and how to go about
positioning ourselves for those fights. But on the landscape, as you look at
the big picture, it looks like certain people are only going to get certain
fights and you're not going to be able to fight certain guys. That's not good
for us.”
Porter is correct. While not
technically tied to Golden Boy Promotions, they are with Haymon and for the
past few years, they have appeared on nothing but GBP cards. So the Porters are
clearly entrenched on this side of the border regarding the Cold War. When you
sign with Haymon, you know where you stand. But Porter says, “That was never on
my mind when I signed with Haymon because we've been with him a number of
years. We've been with him since late 2009, beginning 2010. So at that point
back then, he didn't have as many guys as he has now and we didn't have a
situation going on where it was divided promotional companies, divided TV
networks, divided drug agencies - we didn't have that,” Porter pointed out with
a chuckle.
They make it clear that they
haven't looked past the slick-boxing Malignaggi, who doesn't figure to be an
easy out. But should they get past him, Porter makes it clear that they want all options open to them. He states, “If
you give me one of the big guns, you give me an opportunity to unify a title
with Mayweather, you give me an opportunity to unify a title with [Manny]
Pacquiao - I want to do that. That's what I want. That's what we want. We want
that type of fight.”
Considering the current
conditions of the business, that isn't really a possibility. The bottom line is
by mere association with Haymon, Golden Boy and Showtime, Porter will never
realistically be in the mix for Pacquiao. And if he should ever be considered
for Mayweather, what real bargaining leverage does he have if he can't even get
cursory negotiations with Pacquiao? It basically becomes a take-it-or-leave-it situation,
much like what UFC combatants are faced with.
Porter is a strong-willed
individual not afraid to speak his mind. Many others are simply too compliant
with the status quo.
“I would think more
managers, more boxers, I mean, boxing as a whole, there's still a lot of things
that need to be tightened up,” said a chagrined Porter. “We need to know what's
going on; we need to have more structure.”
However, this man is also a
realist. Porter admits, “I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel,
honestly. What I see is a constant struggle outside of the ring before you get
inside the ring. I call it ‘the fight before the fight.’ We're going to have to
continue to fight outside the ring before we even get inside the ring.”
On the flipside, the current
system - should Porter keep winning - could still be very lucrative for him.
Haymon clients who haven't been nearly as successful as this young man from
Akron, Ohio, have made a great living by facing carefully hand-picked opponents
for exorbitant amounts on premium cable networks. Hey, can't knock the hustle;
right? Does it really matter as long as the bottom line is robust?
“Yes, it does matter to me,”
said Porter, taking umbrage at such a thought. “It does matter because,
honestly, I think getting paid well is good. That's great. That's one of our
goals but also having an opportunity to fight the best and challenge the best
and if the best is better than us, then we'll find out on that night. But to
never be given that opportunity is not something I'm happy with. I want the
opportunity.”
As for what Shawn thinks,
well, it's very simple in this case: the son does the fighting inside the ring;
the father fights the battles outside of it. It's been that way when it came to
the schools he attended, his youth football programs and navigating through the
amateur boxing politics.
“[Shawn]’s always allowed me
to take the frontline, go in first and here, we have another situation where we
know that eventually I'm going to have to go in headfirst with somebody. It's
going to happen because I just don't feel comfortable allowing things to just
happen around me and without speaking my mind and saying, ‘Hey, this is not
good with us.’”
So is he willing to play the
bad guy who creates waves?
TNR
This week’s edition of “The Next Round” with Gabe Montoya and Yours Truly:
GOLDEN BID
Golden Boy won the right to
promote the vacant WBO featherweight title tilt between Gary Russell Jr. and
Vasyl Lomachenko with a bid of $1,052,500, beating Top Rank’s bid by a mere
$2,500. And Richard Schaefer, the head of GBP, already has a date in mind for
this match-up: June 21st.
“I'm looking at potentially
putting together a tripleheader [on that date],” said Schaefer on Friday
afternoon from Washington D.C. “Actually, going into the purse bid, I had numerous
conversations with Showtime; last night I had dinner with [Showtime Sports head]
Stephen Espinoza. We zoomed in on a number and then this morning, I gave this
number to Raul Jaime, who represented us at the purse bid which we won.
“So I'm looking at doing a
tripleheader on June 21st with a strong possibility it could be at
the StubHub Center.”
WEEKEND FLURRIES
Told that a bout between Viktor “Going” Postol and Selcuk Aydin will be the
opening bout on HBO on May 17th before Juan Manuel Marquez-Mike
Alvarado take the stage at the Forum...It looks like Antonio DeMarco is no
longer in the running to face Brandon Rios in the early summer...I hate being
sick but at least I have Obamacare now...I find it hard to believe that Teddy
Bridgewater will slide out of the first round of the NFL Draft. Almost seems
like a smear campaign...I'd take a chance on LSU's Zach Mettenberger in the
second or third round...
I can be reached
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