Leading into their vacant title fight scheduled for September 8th, the fathers/trainers of Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter chat it up with Showtime’s Jim Gray about their approach to training their sons as well as their expectations for next month’s fight. Check out some excerpts below with the full video interview above.
Kenny Porter on how he feels watching his son take punishment inside the ring:
“Being specific here, when we’re talking training, that’s not really that deep. But when he’s in the actual ring and he’s fighting it’s much deeper. But because I competed in a lot of different types of competitions as an amateur boxer, and then after that in Tough Man contests, in kickboxing and things like that — I’ve felt what it feels like to be in that ring, to get an elbow, to get a takedown, and so I feel differently when he’s inside the ring. I have a more competitive spirit towards winning than maybe someone’s kid who’s in there and they’re looking at if their kid is getting injured or something like that. I’m looking at it like ‘Let’s win!’”
Angel Garcia:
“I understand how to separate that. As a dad I gotta separate the boxing. So when Danny’s in there I gotta look at him as a coach, I can’t look at it as a dad. ‘Cause if I look at it like a dad then when he comes to the corner I’m gonna be [coddling him], I can’t have that. My mind is focused just like him, I’m fighting with him spiritually. So when Danny’s getting hit I’m getting hit with him, that’s the difference between me and a lot of trainers.”
Kenny Porter on if he’s living his own dreams vicariously through Shawn:
“No. Actually Shawn is doing what he wants to do, this was his choice. I was actually pushing for him to go to college and play football and he had to have a conversation with me that lasted over an hour trying to talk me into allowing him to continue to box. There was never a conversation I had with him or my other son about boxing after high school. I wanted them to go to college.
“When he fights in the ring I see the energy that I had but when he’s outside the ring he’s the individual that I wanted him to be, that I taught him to be at home so that when he walks out into the world he represents himself, me, his mom, he represents our family very well. He represents a good person very well. So I’m happy with him from that standpoint.”
Angel Garcia:
“Well, yeah, I wish I woulda been a world champion. That’s a fact. You know, but things happen. Everybody has a destiny, and my destiny wasn’t that. My destiny was to work hard, take care of my family, nobody ever gave me nothing. I taught my kids to be hard workers, that’s why Danny is such a hard worker today...
“Not everybody goes to college, but, I work hard, I taught him to be a hard worker because that was passed on to me...I knew my job was to keep Danny focused and that’s why we’re here today.”
Angel Garcia on if he thinks he ever makes public statements to the detriment of his son:
“Well, I did. I did the last fight with Thurman. You know, I’m a man, I accept my faults. I’m not perfect...The Thurman fight was a lot of politics, they was calling me racist. I am not racist, man. Like that’s the last thing in me — being a racist...But yes, I regretted that, the Thurman fight, when I said the words I said. All hell broke loose and I couldn’t be focused that week of that fight. So I do regret that. Yes.”
Kenny Porter on what made Shawn crash Danny’s post-fight interview to call him out for a fight:
“Honestly it was the Showtime staff. We didn’t burst in there...Shawn wanted to go and they say ‘hey, here you go, you can go.’ That was out of character for him in every aspect that I’ve known him. I’ve never seen him do the types of things he did that day,..”
Angel Garcia on his impression on Shawn Porter calling out his son:
“Well I was happy about the win. When I looked over he was just there, you was doing the interview. But they got the fight, they got what they wanted. They here now, look. So it’s September 8th, and then it’s on!”
Angel on if he’s ever wanted to throw a punch at one of Danny’s opponents:
“Well, I wish I was young again...people look at me and they think I don’t gotta resume. I’m the most underrated trainer out there, man. And Danny’s the most underrated fight — but look at Danny’s resume.”
Kenny Porter:
“I have hit some of Shawn’s opponents but it was at different stages in their life. So that would be Adrien Broner. I actually whooped him when he was a kid. And when I said ‘whooped him’ I actually grabbed him by his shirt and his pants and smacked him on his ass when he was about 10 years old, ‘cause he was in the hallway cursing and fussing like at 12 o’clock at night, running up and down the hallways.
“Later years in life he chose to try to get me back for that day, you know, he said some things at the press conference that definitely rubbed me that way and I wanted to touch him, but I wanted to touch him from that father standpoint — or from that coach to the young boxer standpoint. Not from a dislike him. I love him.”