Shawn Porter isn't worried about his upcoming bout against Andre Berto. In fact, he thinks that, once he starts working Berto's body throughout the fight, Porter expects a knockout victory for him.
In an interview with FightHub, Porter said he respects Berto, but said he is going to hit his opponent's body and that he won't get back up.
"I see myself hurting him to the body but I haven't seen myself stopping him," Porter said. "I can see him going down but I can't see him not getting up. Maybe that's too much respect for him, I know in the moment in the fight I'm going after this dude. I'm hitting him to the body, if he goes down and he gets up, I'm going back to the body - I'm stopping him, I'm doing what I gotta do. But right now I feel like he has the heart of a lion. He's Haitian, he carries that blood with him, he's proud of it and I respect that so I'm ready for a full fight."
Porter is returning to the scene of his last defeat, a welterweight title bout against Keith Thurman back in 2016 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, when he faces Berto. Porter, 29, believes that his career is blossoming while Berto, 33 and winner of three of his last four fights, is fading.
"I think my coaches keep me at the peak...my dad keeps me where I need to be and a big part of that that we work on is the focus and the mentality approaching the fight as well so, I think where other guys lack I have it all," Porter said. "We work extremely hard in the PC, we go up to the mountains, we're in better conditioning than most guys. Those guys that are in great conditioning, we work on the mental fortitude just as much as we work on the physical. Those guys might not have it as much mentally as they do physically. So one way or another I'm always ahead of the game and that's the plan with this fight - to come out...to get ahead and stay ahead."
Porter and Berto will headline a Barclays Center card on April 22. The winner of that bout will face Thurman for the WBC welterweight title eliminator. Credit to Bad Left Hook for the transcription. The full interview can be seen in the video above.
