Andre Berto and Shawn Porter may not be fighting for a world title, but their upcoming bout on April 22 would put the winner on the verge of getting another world championship.
The fight, a WBA welterweight title eliminator, is headlining the April 22 card which will be broadcasted on Showtime.
The top fighters of this card met in Brooklyn, New York for one final press conference before they meet at the Barclays Center, where Showtime had already done two boxing cards this year.
Below are the highlights of the Berto vs. Shawn Porter press conference.
Porter confident ahead of fight with Berto:
This main event pits two of the best welterweights to not currently hold a title, and both men showed a lot of respect to each other, acknowledging that they are just another hurdle to jump over en route to another world title.
Porter is looking to get another fight against Keith Thurman, who beat Porter last year to win the WBA welterweight title. Berto has won a couple of world titles at welterweight, but is 4-4 in his last eight bouts.
Porter, very confident in his ability to win, plans to outbox him and work the body throughout the fight. Porter said it's been proven that Berto can get knocked down and hurt and Porter said he plans to do the same again.
"I know he can get stopped," Porter said. "I know he's gotten hurt. He'll be ready [for the fight], but not as ready as me."
Charlo vs. Hatley Gets Heated:
The co-main event of the night, a WBC light middleweight bout between champion Jermell Charlo and challenger Charles Hatley, trash talk levels were much higher than for the main event.
Both men were supposed to have met several weeks prior in Maryland before an injury to Oscar Escandon, who was fighting Gary Russell Jr. in a title bout that would have main evented the card, forced Charlo's title defense to be postponed. Charlo is making his very first defense of the title.
The most hectic part of the press conference came while Hatley was talking. Somebody heckled Hatley about his current situation with promoter Don King, which prompted several members of Hatley's entourage to yell back at the heckler and at Charlo.
What ensued was a shouting match between the two sides, almost having security escort the shouters out of the press conference.
The two fighters have made it clear that they do not like each other and several people said during the presser that this fight is main event level-worthy. Promoter Lou DiBella gave a lot of props to the two fighters and Shawn Porter's trainer and father, Ken Porter, said he feels bad for the two fighters because he thinks this fight can and should headline a boxing card.
Amanda Serrano's Quest for Five:
The underlying story of the card is Amanda Serrano's quest to become the first female boxer, and first Puerto Rican boxer, to win world titles at five different weight classes.
Serrano, quickly become the female face of Showtime Boxing after defending her super bantamweight title on a Showtime Extreme telecast on January, is fighting former two-time world champion Dahiana Santana on Showtime Extreme's boxing telecast on the Berto vs. Porter undercard.
Should Serrano win the title, she would make boxing history, but Serrano isn't all too thrilled to be fighting Santana.
"We challenged the champion at 118 pounds, but she didn't want to," Serrano said. "Santana's an okay fighter. I would have loved to have fought the champion, but Santana picked up the challenge."
Fightful will have live coverage of Berto vs. Porter at the Barclays Center on April 22.
