SPENCE-PORTER IS ONLY THE 11TH WELTERWEIGHT UNIFICATION IN BOXING HISTORY
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 27 Sep 2019
The fight on Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California will be featured as only the 11th welterweight unification bout in boxing history and is an enthralling encounter with the tougher, younger and more highly valued IBF champion Erroll Spence Jr. (25-0, 21 KOs) facing a harsh brawler in WBC champion Shawn Porter (30-2-1, 17 KOs).
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The ten welterweight unification fights in boxing history are as follows:
1. July 25, 1929 Jackie Fields (NBA) W DQ 2 Joe Dundee (World)
2. September 16, 1981 Sugar Ray Leonard (WBC) TKO 14 Thomas Hearns (WBA)
3. December 6, 1985 Donald Curry (WBA, IBF) KO 3 Milton McCrory (WBA)
4. March 18, 1991 Simon Brown (IBF) KO 10 Maurice Blocker (WBC)
5. September 18, 1999 Felix Trinidad (IBF) W 12 Oscar De La Hoya (WBC)
6. January 25, 2003 Ricardo Mayorga (WBA) KO 3 Vernon Forrest (WBC)
7. December 13, 2003 Cory Spinks (IBF) W 12 Ricardo Mayorga (WBA, WBC)
8. May 3, 2014 Floyd Mayweather (WBC, WBA Super) W 12 Marcos Maidana (WBA)
9. May 2, 2015 Floyd Mayweather (WBC, WBA Super) Manny Pacquiao (WBO)
10. March 4, 2017 Keith Thurman (WBA) W 12 Danny Garcia (WBC)
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Errol Spence is the heavy betting favorite heading into his PPV battle against Shawn Porter on Saturday night. As of this writing, Spence is the -800 favorite, meaning if you bet $800 on Spence to win $100. While you bet $100 on Porter to win $500.
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Andy Ruiz, the heavyweight champion who scored an upset by knocking out Anthony Joshua to wrest his unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles reminds Porter of himself and Joshua of Spence. ?I've trained?practically grown up?with Shawn Porter, who has a difficult style,? Ruiz was quoted by Premier Boxing Champions. ?Errol Spence is a great fighter and Shawn's the underdog, but I was the underdog against Anthony Joshua and we all know what happened there. Shawn's probably gonna have to be rough in there and stay on the inside, but I expect him to do it and win a decision.?
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Spence won over Kell Brook by 11th tound stoppage but admitted it was not his best performance, "I give myself a B-. I was a little bit off with my offense and defense, but I give Kell a lot of credit. This is what true champions do. You go anywhere to fight." Spence landed 246 of 633 punches thrown for 39% accuracy while Brook landed 136 of 442 for 31%.
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Brook defeated Porter to win the WBC title via 12 round majority decision. Two American judges scored it 117?111 and 116?112 for Brook while the English judge scored it 114?114. Brook landed 158 of his 441 punches for a 36% rate. Porter threw 308 more power punches, in total connecting 156 of 626 thrown for a 25% rate. Porter believed that he won the fight, "I thought that I was effective with my attack, but he was ready. I'm not giving any excuses. I want the rematch. I'll find him where he's at, and I'll take it from him."
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Six players of Gilas Pilipinas men?s basketball team for the Southeast Asian Games will come from crowd favorite Barangay Ginebra, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and coach Tim Cone announced on Thursday. They are LA Tenorio, Scottie Thompson, Stanley Pringle, Greg Slaughter, and Art dela Cruz.
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They will be joined by June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Christian Standhardinger and Chris Ross from the San Miguel Beermen, Troy Rosario, Jayson Castro and Roger Pogoy from the TNT KaTropa, Vic Manuel from the Alaska Aces, and Matthew Wright from the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters.
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Former PBA commissioner Noli Eala supported Cone via Twitter, though he made a suggestion: "Totally approve of the pool of players selected by @manilacone Coach Tim for SEAG. Would have added perhaps only one player ? @ray1parks ? because of his familiarity with the possible opponents who he already faced in the ABL. Regardless this team is a juggernaut."
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Eala added: "Except in 1979 and 1989, the Philippines has won the last 17 of 19 SEAG Basketball golds. So frankly lets not overthink or overreact to the players who were selected to the pool or even our chances of success. This is so different from the Asian level or the WC."
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No amateur players were included in the SEA Games pool as National Collegiate Athletic Association and University Athletic Association of the Philippines seasons are ongoing. The Gilas Pilipinas team will start once-a-week practices on Monday and will improve to twice-a-week by November. The SEA Games will be hosted by the Philippines on November 30 to December 11.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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