With Shawn Porter set to defend his welterweight world title against Yordenis Ugas later this week, he is certainly coming into the fight as excited as one could be.
In a recent media conference call, Porter, the current WBC titleholder at 147 pounds, spoke to Fightful and was asked how his mindset differs coming into the fight as a champion compared to when he is the challenger. It's been years since Porter last came into the fight as a world champion and added that he doesn't have a different mindset to this fight, but instead excitement over getting to defend his title. Porter won the WBC title last September with a win over Danny Garcia in Brooklyn.
"No, there's no different mindset. I think maybe if anything there's just excitement. It's like you said, I've been here before so I'm excited to make another title defense. I think that is something that's special, something that you have to do once you win a title. So I think maybe if anything, I'm just looking forward to being able to put that label on what we're doing March 9, which is making the title defense. I'm definitely looking forward to making it a successful one," Porter said.
Is that excitement due in part to this fight being the main event of a PBC card being televised on Fox? With previous cards televised on Fox drawing well over a million viewers on average, the potential of a new audience watching Porter fight could lead to bigger fights and bigger paydays down the line. When asked about fighting on Fox by Fightful, Porter, whose last few fights were on Showtime, said he is looking forward to fighting on a bigger stage than usual.
"It all adds to it. It all becomes one big ball of excitement that you have to kind of hone in on and turn that energy into the right energy that you need for the fight. That's the best part about it for me, man. I enjoy opportunities to perform in front of big crowds and I enjoy opportunities to do what so many people hope to do. I hope to fight March 9 in front of thousands and thousands of people and even more than you would normally expect from a network standpoint. I'm looking forward to being successful and moving on from there but yes, definitely all of it just kind of combines into this one big ball of great energy that I look forward to," Porter said.
The fight between Porter and Ugas will headline a PBC on Fox card from the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California on March 9. You can listen to Porter talking to Fightful in the video at the top of the page.
Fightful also had an extensive interview with Porter in which he talked on a number of different topics, including potentially headlining a pay-per-view card in the future. That interview can be seen in the video below.