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Talk gets trashy at Adrien Broner-Shawn Porter presser

Fighters Network
18
Jun
Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Photo by Naoki Fukuda

It was bound to happen.

After months of keeping things respectful, the Adrien Broner everyone expected finally came out to play at Thursday’s press conference leading up to the highly anticipated June 20 showdown that pits “The Problem” against Shawn “Showtime” Porter.

Broner and Porter are quite familiar with each another and their history has been well documented. They’ve sparred together in the past. Porter comes from Akron, Ohio, and Broner represents Cincinnati. Because of their relatively drama-free association, an uncharacteristically tame Adrien Broner had shied away from lobbing the assault of verbal jabs that has helped him become arguably the most polarizing boxer in the sport.

But all of that respect was thrown out of the window in a matter of minutes.



Once Broner took to the podium, he simply couldn’t restrain himself as the vitriol spewed from his mouth like a shaken soda bottle.

“The is the A.B. show!” Broner barked as Floyd Mayweather Jr. watched the 25-year-old who often calls himself Mayweather’s little brother waste little time taking aim at both Shawn and, more poignantly, his father and trainer, Kenny. A bevy of insults were slung from Broner’s hip. He called Shawn a football player and ridiculed his opponent for allowing his father to “live out his dream through Shawn.” He even went so far as to suggest that Kenny Porter had been using his son to gain access to the finer things in life while delivering Shawn mere crumbs despite the younger Porter being the breadwinner.

“Since they are both getting a check off of me, if I kick both of their asses do I get paid twice?” Broner said in jest as a wide-eyed Mayweather smiled. Surely, Broner’s antics reminded him of the barbs that he tortured Oscar De La Hoya with before their then-record-breaking 2007 showdown. “I like Shawn as a person but he gets so much negative energy from his dad.”

Kenny had heard enough and engaged in the war of words with Broner.

“You probably do need to be paid twice in order to pay all of that child support!” Porter shot back. All the while, Shawn put his head down and sat in silence as his father and his opponent traded insults.

“In one ear and out the other,” Shawn Porter said to RingTV when asked if the exchange got under his skin. “He’s doing what he can to sell tickets and have people remember who he is once I’m finished with him.”

Porter wondered aloud where Broner was getting his information from but says he was unmoved by The Problem’s attempts to get into his head.

“I knew that it was going to eventually happen,” Porter continued. “He respects me but I definitely expected him to get loud at the press conference. It just doesn’t get to me.”

Across the way, Broner reveled in the fact that he got under Kenny Porter’s skin.

“Big time!” Broner barked back when asked if he rattled the father of his opponent. “But I didn’t talk trash. I was just stating facts.”

When asked whether he thinks he got into his opponent’s head, Broner shrugged it off and said that he’ll expose Porter in the ring on June 20.

“I’ll show all the chinks in his armor on Saturday night. It’s only a big fight because he’s fighting Adrien Broner.”

As for Porter, although he says that Broner’s talking has fallen on deaf ears, the look in his eyes suggest otherwise.

“Punishment is what I predict on Saturday,” Porter said. “I will not be stopped!”

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