The Newest Contestant in Boxing’s Money Sweepstake

By William T. Shorter

Quick! Name the four title holders in the Welterweight division. The first three are easy Floyd Mayweather Jr, (That one was easy because he is the biggest star in boxing), Manny Pacquiao (That’s wasn’t to hard he is only boxing’s second biggest star), Marcos Maidana (That one wasn’t a given but given his upcoming mega fight with Floyd Mayweather his popularity will increase building up to their fight on May 3rd) and finally.. Are you stumped? Give up? Let me help you Shawn Porter, the defending IBF champion.

Over the past 6 months Shawn Porter has increased his profile in the boxing community, but Saturday on the undercard of Hopkins v.s. Shumenov fight Porter may have taken his profile to an all-time high and has officially placed his name in boxing’s money sweepstake to potentially unify his IBF title v.s Floyd Mayweather.

While Porter (24-0-1, 15 KOs) vs Malignaggi (33-6 7 KOs) on paper was a classic battle of boxer (Malignaggi) vs brawler (Porter) this was a one sided destruction by Shawn Porter. From the opening bell Porter used a smothering aggressive style similar to the style used to outpoint Devon Alexander on Dec 7th 2013 to capture the title. This time the result was a 4th round KO over Malignaggi, from the beginning this fight was action packed. Porter’s pin point power punching produced a cut under Malignaggi’s left eye in the first round. He continued to land almost at will thru out the first three rounds. At one point he staggered Malignaggi with a body shot that prompted Malignaggi to attempt to regain distance behind his jab to make it thru the third round.

Finally in the 4th Porter’s continuous pressure and aggressive style took its toll on Malignaggi when he was dropped with a right hand. Referee Sam Williams took a good look into the dazed eyes of Malignaggi and stopped the count, so that Malignaggi would not endure any more damage during the fight.

The results of this might showed the contrast at where these two fighters are at in their careers. After the fight, Malignaggi stated that he would think about retirement, and Porter further elevated his career and entered his name into boxing’s money sweepstake.

“Shawn Porter come on down you are the next contestant in the Money Mayweather Sweepstake!”