Shawn Porter: Errol Spence Jr putting on an act for cameras

WBC welterweight titleholder Shawn Porter faces IBF titleholder Errol Spence Jr this Saturday night in a FOX pay-per-view main event, and the 31-year-old underdog Porter has promised that he’ll take the 29-year-old Spence to places he’s never been in the ring, and see if the undefeated fighter can handle the adversity.

He also tells CBS Sports’ Brian Campbell that Spence (25-0, 21 KO) may not really know who he is in or out of the ring right now, saying that the Texas fighter puts on an act for the cameras:

“Right now, it’s hard to say who Errol Spence is. Seeing him get in the ring and seeing and hearing the things that he says. Then he has multiple videos kind of trying to slander me for the sake of words. Down-talking me. Then we pop out in Dallas and no one knows this but we run into him in the restaurant and we’re buddy-buddy again. No cameras around, no media around, no one around to say he should act any other way. ... [W]hen the camera comes on, he changes. Shawn Porter is always going to be the same. You’re never going to have to guess or wonder which Shawn Porter you’re talking to. Right now, I think that Errol Spence has a lot of questions he’s trying to figure out for himself.”

Porter (30-2-1, 17 KO) is a rugged, mauling brawler when he’s at his best, and he could sincerely ask some big questions of Spence in the ring on Saturday, as he has said he’ll do. Then there’s the question of Spence’s personality and ego — Porter has already said he’s seen Spence’s confidence change to arrogance, and he’d hardly be the first fighter to let success go to his head and leave him vulnerable in the ring.

We’ll find out Saturday either way. Spence is a big favorite on the books, but once the bell rings, it’s up to the fighters.