Shawn Porter says he’s ready for Mayweather, Marquez and the 147-pound elite

Shanw Porter FightHub 4-2014

As IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter keeps winning each time he steps up in competition questions about him being ready to face the best of the sport will arise.

Names like Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquiao—whom Porter is a former sparring partner of—and of course the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. will start to be mentioned each time Porter proves himself worthy with wins over increasingly better opposition.

Saturday, April 19, will be another opportunity for Porter to prove he is worth being mentioned as an opponent for the best the 147-pound division has to offer when he takes on former titleholder Paulie Malignaggi at the DC Armory in Washington, D.C on the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins-Beibut Shumenov showdown.

Fresh off his IBF title-winning victory over Devon Alexander in December as the co-feature of the card that took place at the Barclay’s Center in Newark, N.J. that featured Malignaggi (33-5, 7 KOs) besting Zab Judah, Porter (23-0-1, 14 KOs) will undoubtedly be facing the best fighter he has in his 24 professional bouts.

Both Porter and Malignaggi rely on their boxing skill and not power as both fighters don’t boast an eye-popping KO percentage. Porter has a more impressive KO stat with almost 61 percent of his wins come by way of knockout, but he hasn’t won by KO in almost two years. As his competition has increased his knockouts have decreased as is the case most of the time. Malignaggi boasts’ a subtle KO percentage of just 21 percent and hasn’t won by KO since his early stoppage of Michael Lozada in December 2010.

Porter could set himself up for a big name showdown with one of the aforementioned best fighters in the welterweight division with a solid output Saturday and catapult his stock in the sport in the process. Malignaggi is also looking to re-cement his name among the best in the welterweight division after his career took a hit when he lost a close bout to Adrien Broner in June of 2013.

Being a free agent also puts Porter in a position many are not as he can land about with a fighter promoted by Top Rank or Golden Boy and not have to worry about the silly Cold War the two are in.