Shawn Porter has long been after a fight with Danny Garcia. Porter will finally get his wish Sept. 8 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., when he’ll face Garcia for the vacant WBC welterweight.
Although Porter is happy that he’ll finally get to square off with Garcia after years of calling him out, the former champion wholeheartedly believes that the only reason the fight is scheduled is because the WBC title on the line.
“I do think that the WBC (title) is what made the difference,” Porter said at his media workout at the Porter Hy-Performance gym in Las Vegas. “I think that if this fight isn’t for the WBC title, he’ll continue to wait almost an entire year to fight again. There’s much more to gain fighting Shawn Porter for the world title.”
After beating Adrian Granados in November, Porter had two targets: Keith Thurman or Danny Garcia. If he was unable to land a fight with either, the 30-year-old was prepared to sit out until a fight came to fruition.
In February, Porter was ringside in Las Vegas for Danny Garcia’s ninth-round TKO of Brandon Rios. After the fight, Porter stepped into the ring and engaged in a war of words with Garcia. The post-fight drama brought attention to a potential showdown between the two like never before.
“I called for this fight back in 2014,” Porter said. “(The callout) did its job.”
Now that the fight has arrived, Porter said there’s not really bad blood between the two sides. However, when hearing that Garcia wants to go toe-to-toe with him in the center of the ring, Porter laughed off the idea that the counterpuncher would want to trade punches with the aggressive pressure fighter.
"I don't believe that he's going to stand toe-to-toe with me, but I do believe that's where he thinks he can win the fight,” Porter said. “The point is to hit and not get hit, so we'll try to keep it as clean as possible. It gets rough in there sometimes, but if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
