Welterweight titleholders Errol Spence and Shawn Porter held their final press conference before they unify their titles this weekend, and the tension has been slowly building throughout the promotion. So here, Spence and Porter have a little repartee while discussing their expectations for their fight.
Shawn Porter on if he’s sick of seeing Errol Spence for all these promotional events:
“I don’t think I’ll ever be sick of Errol Spence. I think right now it’s just the competitor in me to get at him in any way I can. And until that bell rings we’ll do whatever we need to do to not only promote this fight but to let him know that we are here to fight him.”
Spence on Porter claiming he’ll break him during this fight:
“I make nothing of it. It sounds good but he gotta make that happen. And like I said, we train hard, very focused, and I’m ready for anything he can bring to the table. So if he says he can break me, he’s gonna break me, he’s gonna stop me, he’s gonna beat me up — keep that same energy come Saturday night.”
Porter responding to Spence’s comments:
“I mean the energy has never changed. The energy ain’t changed. I got the energy right now! Where’s his energy at? And he said the same things, that he wanna knock me out, he gonna hurt me, so on and so forth. You didn’t knock out 135lb Mikey Garcia, you ain’t knocking out 147lb ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter.”
Spence why he says he will feel disappointed if he doesn’t stop Porter when he didn’t feel that way with Mikey Garcia:
“I just feel like he been talking a lot, his dad been talking a lot — I wanna knock him out. After Saturday night they gonna call me ‘The Showstopper,’ I promise you that. I feel like he does have the belt, he fought a lot of guys, but all his fights have been split decisions and close decisions. That’s the only thing that he showed, that he can stay close with the top level fighters. That’s about it.”
Porter responding to Spence:
“I think that I showed nothing over here is fake. Nothing over here is fake. When you in the ring with a top level opponent that’s what you supposed to do, it’s supposed to be a close action-packed fight. I’m sorry that I have everything it takes to not only make a fight exciting, but make it close, competitive and so on and so forth. Nobody complains about ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter when he gets out of the ring. People complain about you not knocking out 135lb Mikey Garcia.”
Spence:
“Nobody complain about my fights! You wild. You fight like a football player. You an in-shape street fighter.
“You fight like you drowning and you don’t know how to swim.”
Moments later Anthony Dirrell and David Benavidez started exchanging words at the dais, mostly insulting each other’s past opponents. The moderator would shift questions back towards Spence and Porter a little later, where they both gave more insight as to their thoughts on the fight and their preparation.
Check out the full press conference video and face off above!