Shawn Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs) and Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs) engaged in a brawl that alternated between being ugly and entertaining, but in the end Shawn Porter scored a ninth round stoppage win as he was battering Berto around the ring and the referee stepped in. It was a bit of an unsatisfying ending as the final flurry began with a headbutt that seemed to bother Berto, but that was more or less the story of the fight. Porter is now Keith Thurman’s mandatory challenger for what would be a very satisfying rematch after losing a very tight decision last June. Jermell Charlo also defended his belt with a spectacular sixth round knockout of Charles Hatley.
Early on in the fight Berto didn’t seem to deal well mentally with Porter’s physicality. Porter would pin Berto against the ropes and Berto would try to clinch, but “Showtime” Shawn Porter just would not allow it. Instead he would yank his arms out and keep the moving, often digging viciously to the body in the process. He would also jerk his head around, however, leading to many headbutts. Stronger headbutts came when he would lunge in as well and they lead to cuts over both of Porter’s eyes and one of Berto’s. All of this led to a very visibly frustrated Berto who repeatedly turned to the ref or otherwise wore looks of disgust on his face.
In the seventh Porter relented a little bit for the first time and Berto was able to work in space and win the round, but Porter unleashed a sustained assault to the body in the eighth like few that I have seen. He may have began breaking Berto there, but the finish was in the ninth following yet another headbutt that definitely affected Berto. From there he finished with legal punches, punctuated by two big left hooks, but an illegal blow really did mark the first big impact in the sequence.
After the fight Porter somewhat awkwardly publicly apologized for the headbutts. He seemed to feel legitimately guilty about them and while that is admirable, it is also a little concerning. His mauling is his game at the top of the division. If he is suddenly in his own head worried about the fouls, he is going to become a much less effective fighter. Afterwards Keith Thurman got in the ring and they bantered a bit about a rematch as Porter is now once again Thurman’s mandatory challenger.
In the co-main event Jermell Charlo (29-0, 14 KOs) successfully defended his WBC junior middleweight title by absolutely obliderating Charles Hatley (26-2-1, 18 KOs) in the sixth round. This all around was a tremendous performance, the best of Jermell Charlo’s career to date. I one hundred percent believed this to be a fifty fifty fight and I was one hundred percent wrong. Charlo controlled the fight from the first round to the finish. In the second he probably should have scored a knockdown when a clean shot knocked Hatley back into the ropes as Hatley likely would have gone down had they not been there, but it was a close call and not an egregious miss. It was impossible to miss the clean knockdown Charlo scored in the third, however, with a lightning quick right hand behind the jab.
Everything Charlo landed in the fourth and fifth seemed to bother Hatley. The Don King promoted Charles Hatley fought gamely, but he had a terrible habit of pulling straight back. The fundamentals just weren’t there and on top of that he was the smaller man with the slower hands. In the sixth Hatley attacked recklessly in the corner by squaring up and throwing with both hands. Charlo ended that in a hurry. Hatley laid motionless for a few beats longer than anyone would like to see after a knockout, but he came to his senses before too long and seems to be fine. There won’t be many cleaner KOs than that one in 2017 and it will be in the conversation for KO of the Year without question.
Trainer Derrick James has been reportedly working on the power on Jermell Charlo, something that is typically difficult to do. If it can be done, however, Jermell is the best case study. After all there is another fighter genetically his exact match who does have big power in his one minute older identical twin brother Jermall. With three straight KOs, it just might be working.
After the fight Jermell called out for unification with IBF titlist Jarrett Hurd. That would be a tremendous fight that could headline a Showtime event at this point.
On the Showtime Extreme preliminary bouts Amander Serrano (33-1-1, 24 KOs) became the first Puerto Rican fighter to win a world title in five weight classes when she stopped Dahiana Santana (35-9, 14 KOs) in the eighth round to pick up the female WBO bantamweight title. What is most interesting about her reign is how she won her first title at lightweight and has moved down one class at a time, the exact opposite as basically every other fighter ever. Mexican welterweight prospect Jose Borrego (12-0, 11 KOs) also picked up a seventh round stoppage over John Delperdang (10-3, 9 KOs).
