Photos by Marilyn Paulino/RBRBoxing
In tonight’s airing of Showtime Championship Boxing, presented by Premier Boxing Champions, the co-featured bout live from Barclays Center, was an exciting battle between two relentless warriors, as Shawn Porter took on Adrian Granados in a welterweight world title eliminator.
As expected, this fight was two highly energetic and spirited fighters, battling it out to obtain the WBC’s Silver Title and also to position themselves as the mandatory challenger to take on the current 147 pound champion, Keith Thurman, upon his expected return from injury in early 2018.
Porter, in the early rounds, showed flashes of his seldom seen boxing skills by staying behind his jab, a different side of the typically wild and unorthodox brawler. However beautiful his jab was early on, Porter quickly abandoned his sharper boxing and went back to his gutsy and restless style.
Porter and Granados traded flurries of punches, however Porter landed more punches, and often times ended their exchanges with power shots. The big right hands of Porter, left hooks and strong uppercuts were enough to shake any fighter, however Granados seemed to eat everything Porter could serve him, and kept on coming.
The chin and spirit of Granados make him a fighter one can’t help but respect, but he was just often out-matched by Porter’s size, style and physical strength.
In this 12-round bout, the ability of both fighters to keep pressing on the gas as if the bout just started was nothing short of amazing to watch, a great display of two well-conditioned athletes. As the fight wore on, Granados showed his true toughness and tried to turn the tables on Porter, but out working and bullying Porter.
In Rounds 11 and 12 Porter for the first time, perhaps in his career, Porter seemed to slow down in the fight, and thus, Granados accelerated the pace on him, flipping the script on the bully style of Porter and becoming the bully himself. This change in pace and acceleration was very uncharacteristic of Porter’s typically relentless style and superb conditioning.
For most of the fight Porter was in control, fighting his fight, and making Granados fall into his unorthodox and uncomfortable type of style, and the judges were in agreement, all scoring the bout 117-111 in favor of Porter.
After the fight, Porter spoke to Showtime’s Jim Gray with an ice bag draped on his hand, and it was apparent that a left hand injury was the reason for his decline in activity in the final rounds.
“I’m not even going to call it an injury right now, we’re just going to rest up and see what we can do,” said Porter.
Porter will likely seek medical attention and his team will know more in the coming hours or even days regarding just how bad this injury possibly is.
In closing, Porter expressed that his next desire is to rematch Thurman, and that himself and his team will do all that they can to make that fight happen.
Porter and Granados both gave fans an entertaining and spirited bout, with a relentless pace and an abundance of heart, just as they are both known and beloved for.
