Shawn Porter says he’s finished.
The former two-time welterweight titleholder, who won fans worldwide with his pressure-fighting style, announced after he was knocked out by Terence Crawford on Saturday that he is retiring at 34 years old.
“I was prepared to announced my retirement tonight, win, lose or draw,” he said at the post-fight news conference. “Even if it was a draw. We had a date. They were telling us we were going to have to do it again. I was not going to do it again.
“I’m announcing my retirement right now.”
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Porter (31-4-1, 17 KOs) was an elite 147-pounder for a decade, including a 2-3 record against arguably the five best active fighters in the division. He beat Danny Garcia and Yordenis Ugas but lost to Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr. and now Crawford.
Crawford was the only man to stop him.
Porter won his first world title by outpointing a prime Devon Alexander in 2013. He lost the belt the following year to Kell Brook by a majority decision after one successful defense, a fourth-round knockout of Paulie Malignaggi.
He narrowly lost a decision to Thurman in his next title fight, in 2016, but won the vacant WBC title by outpointing Garcia in 2018. He successfully defended once, defeating Ugas by a split decision, but then lost a split decision and his belt in a title-unification bout with Spence in 2019.
His performance against Spence was arguably the best of Porter’s career, one that enhanced his reputation as one of the better fighters of his era.
Porter has already embarked on a successful career as a television analyst, which included an assignment covering the Tokyo Olympics. He presumably will focus more of his time on his second career.
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