Tomorrow night Showtime features a double header beginning at 9:30 PM Eastern time headlined by Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 KOs) returning in his first fight back since his narrow defeat to Keith Thurman. He will be taking on a kind of under the radar action star in former two time welterweight titlist Andre Berto (31-4, 24 KOs). The card also features Jermell Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs) defending his junior middleweight title against Charles Hatley (26-1-1, 18 KOs).
Andre Berto was groomed to be a star. He kind of has been, but not in the way he was supposed to be. On his best day he is a B level welterweight, but we were sold on him for years by HBO as a potential pound for pound level fighter. From that lens his career does seem like a bit of a disappointment. I believe that is how the larger boxing world sees him, but it is time to rethink that perspective. Andre Berto is an action star.
Look at his history once he stepped up against top competition. He has put on fight of the year candidates against both Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero. He fought with one arm in a very exciting display of heart against Jesus Soto Karass. Mayweather debacle aside, who has been in more exciting fights more consistently than Andre Berto? I am sure you can come up with some names to answer that question, but it will be a short list.
Give Berto someone like Shawn Porter who only has one gear of forward aggression and you have a recipe for a great fight. Berto will be Berto. He will throw fast, flashy combinations. He won’t move his feet or his head much, at least not consistently over twelve rounds. He will hit with good, but not great power. And if he gets in trouble, he will rally to come back until he has nothing left.
Shawn Porter took an opposite route. As a known amateur stand out, he was definitely a known prospect. Unlike Berto, however, he didn’t look like a future superstar. This largely had to do with weight. He debuted and fought his first ten fights as a dramatically undersized middleweight. He dropped to junior middleweight for his next six fights, and even there he never looked like a potential world champion.
Things looked especially bleak when in late 2012 Porter fought to an evenly fought draw with Julio Diaz at welterweight. Diaz in his day was a top lightweight, but by 2012 he was considered past his peak. Up two weight divisions against a young prospect who had been fighting at even higher weights, this wasn’t competitive on paper. The fights are never contested on paper, however, and Porter was lucky to walk away without a loss.
That fight seemed to spark something in Shawn Porter. His style turned into the aggressive mauler we know him as today. Before that night he was sort of confused stylistically, but not since then. Two fights later he cleanly won the rematch. He beat then elite Devon Alexander for his first title in a follow up before absolutely smashing Paulie Malignaggi permanently out of contention. Next he very narrowly lost his belt to the still unbeaten at welterweight Kell Brook, but two fights later he was in roughing up ratings star Adrien Broner.
Porter sat out a year after his Broner win waiting on his delayed fight with arguable top welterweight Keith Thurman on CBS. He didn’t get the win that night, but his career is better off for the fight. Porter gave it everything he had and then some. A great fighter in Keith Thurman was barely able to hold him off and escape with a narrow, seven rounds to five win.
If Keith Thurman can’t keep away from Porter’s aggression, Andre Berto is very unlikely to be able to. This means action as Andre Berto so consistently has. I really feel like this is being undersold as the potential fight of the year candidate that I think it is. Shawn Porter versus Andre Berto should be war.
The co-feature is Jermell Charlo, the lesser of the two Charlo twins, defending his belt against Don King promoted Charles Hatley. Charlo won his then vacant belt in his last fight against John Jackson with a surprise come from behind ninth round KO. He isn’t a puncher like his brother is and he was soundly losing the fight, but he rallied and did what he needed to do. His belt does feel a little ripe for the picking though.
This is probably at least partly why Hatley has sat out a year and a half since his career biggest win down under in a title eliminator against Australian star and former titlist Anthony Mundine. Don King fighters just don’t get fights anymore though so who knows for sure. Either way, he has been waiting for his shot and here it is.
As is usually the case now, Showtime Extreme will show preliminary fights before the main card. These fights begin two hours before the main show kicks off and feature Amanda Serrano (31-1-1, 23 KOs) gunning for a title in what would be a Puerto Rican record fifth weight class against Dominican Dahiana Santana (35-8, 14 KOs).
