Shawn Porter: Showtime, Sacrifice, and Sovereignty

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]This is a Merrick Studios podcast. This week on Unglossy. Said, Shawn, I don't know if you're winning this fight. He said, you gotta fight this kid back. You gotta back him up. You gotta throw punches and you can't stop throwing punches. You know where the thunderstorm is. said, yes.

[00:00:18]He said, what does it do in a thunderstorm? I said, it rains. He said, that's right. It rains and it doesn't stop. I want you to run across that rain, throw punches and don't stop.

[00:00:31]From the top, I'm Tom Frank. I'm Jeffrey Sledge. And I'm Bug B. Welcome to Unglossy. Real stories, unfiltered dialogue, and the voices moving culture beyond the gloss of hype and headlines. So buckle up, Unglossy starts now.

[00:00:49]All right, we are back for another unglossy. Bun, I gotta open up the show with a question I've been meaning to ask you. Go for it. I saw the other day, or maybe it was about a month ago, you had a lot of soccer balls and you had a Guinness World Record. Yes. I need to know about this. What is going on here? So, you know it's FIFA, right? It's World Cup time.

[00:01:12]Houston is one of the host cities. um And so Airbnb is a very big... part of FIFA because it's a worldwide company and allows people to find housing. When certain cities run out of hotel rooms, we're really good on hotel rooms. That's why we get a lot of big events, but FIFA is something that is a bigger draw than we would normally get because so many people are coming from so many places and it's over a set amount of days. So from the 11th to like the 29th or something like that. So this was part of FIFA and the Airbnb division, the United States division, because they're broken down per country, and the Parks Department.

[00:02:00]And so their thing was to try to break a world record for the most soccer balls in one place, like touching. But they all had to touch. That was the record? Yeah, so the record is 1,000.

[00:02:14]The record was 1,000. So it like a very easy move. Move! What's wrong with you, puppy? It was a big undertaking for them, but not a big record to break. A thousand soccer balls, though. Not many people have that in their garage. Yeah, but I mean, they provided the balls, right? The event, Airbnb in FIFA provided the balls. It's just a matter of getting volunteers to come out, because they wanted a different person for every ball. Oh, wow. That was a thing and then it started raining at the same time. So they lost a few people, but we ended up breaking the record by 30-something balls or something like that. So you are in the Guinness Book of World Record now. I don't know, me personally. I don't think it's my record. one million now?

[00:03:06]I don't think it's my record along with 1,033 other people. I don't think that's how it goes.

[00:03:12]I think it's just... I don't even know how they, to be honest, I don't even know how they will label it. But I know they're not gonna see Bum B breaks world record. I know that. That ain't That's what I was hoping for you. No, I mean, like I was happy to participate. I can always look in the book and see that and know that I participated You were part of it, yeah. And I helped them achieve that. Cause I did ball number one and I did ball seven one three, which is Houston's area code. I like it. I like it. Well, fellas, we're on fire right now.

[00:03:42]We've had some great guests the last couple of Absolutely. And you know what? We got a really good one today. We got a really good one. Today's guest walked into the ring more than once as the underdog and walked out as champion. Shawn Porter is a two-time welterweight world champion, having held the IBF title in 2013, 2014, the IBC title in 2018, 2019. He's trained by his father, Kenny Porter, since he was a kid. Shawn turned pro in 2008 and competed at the highest level of the sport for over a decade, sharing the ring with legends like Floyd Mayweather, Terrence Crawford, Keith Thurman, just to name a few. But this conversation isn't about the fights he won or lost. It's about how you build a life around the discipline of boxing and what it takes to compete at the elite level and what happens when the bell rings. Since we're starting, since retiring in 2021, Shawn has become one of the sharpest, sharpest voices in boxing commentary. And that perspective is exactly what we're here to tap into today. So welcome to Unglossy Showtime, Shawn Porter. How are you? Alright, I appreciate that. Well, you got, you got a lot, I got a lot to say about you. Yeah. You know, Hey, before we get started though, I got to tell a story about how we know each other. Sure.

[00:05:04]You know, so we first met. We first met on the Lupe and Royce show. Lupe invited you on the show. At the time, I was like, who's this guy? And I got to know you a little bit. where I really got to know you, and I don't know if a lot of people know this, is I got to do kind of a documentary style podcast with you. Remember we checked in with you, me and Royce the Five Nine did a show where we checked in with you every week. leading up to what became your final fight against Terrence Crawford on November 20, 2021. And what I really loved about this, and I don't know if I ever told you this, is we did the pre-fight and the post-fight. And Shawn was actually on both of those. But the pre-fight, I think we had a lot of guests on.

[00:05:52]But my favorite guest was Metta World Peace, known as Ron Artest, who does know a lot about boxing. He was really good. He was out about that little special thing we did right there, Yeah. I was at a point in my career where I was like, because I knew it was the last one.

[00:06:14]I said I need as many eyes and body to see this as possible. And I was reaching out to every outlet that I could. you know, Tom and I had become pretty good friends through Royce and Lupe. Royce is the bigger boxing fan than Lupe. Lupe goes a little bit more now than he used to know. But oh Royce and you came up with that great idea and we put it down, man. I thought it went great. um funny enough, man, that fight ended in the 10th round. My dad throws in the towel. He steps up on the apron. I've gone down twice. I'm confused. I'm like, know, very, ah the lights have never bothered me until that moment and that night. And that... still ends up being like one of the like biggest moments of my career where people don't look at me like you're a loser. They actually look at me and they, you know, they reference, you know, me hitting the canvas. They reference, you know, me standing in the ring after the fight and doing a post-fight interview. And they reference the respect that I had towards my dad and kind of, you know, whole list of other things people talk about whenever they see me. They talk about me, you know, constantly almost beating parents, you know, so many different things.

[00:07:31]And I tell people all the time, like, that's what I was out for. I really wasn't out for the belt. Yeah, I wanted the money, but more than anything, I just wanted people to see what I was capable of doing. And I just wanted millions and thousands and millions and more thousands of people, know, just recognizing oh how good I was and, you know, leads me to now. um My thing was, if I can If I can get your heart in the ring, imagine what I can do to your heart off side of the ring. And you know, that's kind of what my whole journey is now. It's motivating, it's inspiring, it's uplifting people and you know, trying to get them to look at what I did and you you can do it too, even if it's not in the box ring. I want to ask you about, I was going to ask you a little bit but I want to ask you a bit that fight. I'm sure you've heard these questions before. You didn't look hurt really. know, when your dad, you know, I remember your dad talked about, like, I know him better than anybody, because he's your dad, obviously, and you trained him all your life. He's like, I knew, he knew something either wasn't right or you maybe just weren't ready to go. But I remember watching that fight and being like, he went down, but he wasn't like, he was woozy or taking a stand at eight. I was like, he don't look hurt. He continued. I wanted to ask you about that. How did that, what did you feel like when your dad? through the towel and maybe you were more hurt than I realized. don't know. when that fight, you know, that's my first is, you know, 2021, I never looked at the fight again or anything, but, know, I have a photographic memory. you know, and I'm able to enter my impact. So I'm able to remember my feelings and, you know, kind of the list goes on. And so when people first were asking me about the topic and that kind of stuff, went up. There was a lot of me protecting my dad. You know, yeah, you know, he did what he felt he had to do. You know, just kept it there. some time goes by and um, Talk to a couple of my other coaches and stuff like that and they said exactly what you said, you know, you didn't really seem hurt You didn't you didn't look hurt. You know, what were you really going through? And I was like I don't know. I just my thing is we know that here's prosper is a finisher and my thing is on me and what I also talked about my dad when you know, someone's a finisher I'm going to finish this before he does was I think that was my best monster. So even if I wasn't as hurt as you've seen other guys in the past, we still know that this guy is coming. We still know this dude is so is, you know, don't have these and the grenade or two in between. So we knew that right. But you fly for some time later and, and I said, I'll let you say this. My dad has done some things in the past that he did not do in that moment. And that has definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. In the past, my dad has allowed me to come back to the corner and he's built me back up. He's given me everything that I've needed to go back and finish the job. We've done that time and time again. And I just look at this one and I'm like, of all the times that you could have done what you've done, numerous times in my lifetime, why didn't you do one in that one? So I do think that he felt like Terrence was a little dangerous. And then there is another side of that story that I feel is best to keep to myself until my documentary comes out. So there's that.

[00:11:12]There's that plug. I can see what you're saying. Again, you didn't look hurt, but Terrence is in the ease of fucking monster, right? We saw he did the arrow. I'm sure you're proud of him. he was scared of that happening to you. Because he pretty much respectfully ended Arrow's career. oh besides the car accident, after that fight, Arrow wasn't really right.

[00:11:37]He ain't been really right again. I was like, I know you're your dad. And I'm assuming.

[00:11:44]But maybe he didn't want to see you go down that road where you really got hurt. Because Arrow really got hurt. Arrow got beat up. Let me take you guys through that round though, right? So, round people think that... TV catching all that magical moment of Bo-Malik telling Terrence that he's down wakes him up and he comes down and he stops me. That's not the case. What people don't realize is he started turning it up. Like He started turning it up, right? He realized that I wasn't coming after him. So he like, all right, I'm gonna step to you. Now, when he starts stepping to me and I continue to bow and move and do all these things. TV never comes to my corner. They don't hear my dad telling me, you gotta fight him.

[00:12:33]You gotta, you gotta go after him. You gotta do this. You gotta do that. My dad never really took to the style that I started the fight with, right? The style that I started the fight with was this in and out movement, fast, quick, get in, get out kind of thing. And that wasn't the game plan. My dad's game plan was, Eros game plan. Eros game plan is to walk at you, walk you down. hits your body, breaks you down. What I knew before the fight started was that's the rhythm and the music that Terrence fights best He likes, yeah, so he likes. He fights best when somebody's coming after him. So, you know, after a good four or five rounds of me not going after him and he starts turning it on, TV never catches what's going on in my corner. What's going on in my corner is there's no cheerleading. There's no, you're doing good, but. It's the same thing every single round. Go after him. What are you doing? You got to do more this and that, this and that. And so you fast forward a couple of rounds, seven, eight, nine rounds. It becomes more of a mental battle and an emotional battle for me than it is the physical battle in the ring. got Terrence now pursuing me. I got me feeling like I'm doing what I need to do. And then I'm going back to the corner and I'm being told that it's not working. And so that- oh 10th round and I've watched that part a couple of times even in my mind. The 10th round you see me lunge at Terrence, out of position, throwing a punch that was, you know, wasn't, there was no reason for me to throw the punch that I threw and he leans back off of it and counters me. I went to her fight with not doing what I knew would get me in trouble, on for me to Desperately do it because it was what I was told I had to do in the corner like so There was no method to what I did. I just did it, you know, because it may I go down And when I go down on like you you hear the crowd. Um It was this flash knockdown current situation where I was like, I was numb gone come right back But when I get up now, I know I know I gotta get that back I know I can't tie this round. That's like, know, nobody ties around. But now I'm like in this mindset of now I gotta get him. He got me, now I gotta get him. And we get back together. And again, I'm called for, I jump back in, a hook, I missed, and he counter right on the down. And he puts me down.

[00:15:19]Now the next time I went down, I'm realizing, what are you doing? What are you doing that?

[00:15:26]I hit the canvas because I'm like, what are you doing? You know, so I just was frustrated.

[00:15:30]I was upset, of course. And now the heart is beating very fast because now I know I'm down for sure. You there's no telling. I mean, there's no telling who's winning the fight. I just went down twice and and my mom figured out, it's a wrap. And then I get up and I'm like, I'm trying to get myself back into the mic, the light mindset. And after I'm getting myself back into the right mindset, I look around when I see my dad on an apron and I'm like, I'm just really confused. I'm like, yo, what are you doing? know, I was like, it was a whole lot going on in that moment. And, um, you know, I felt like I handled it the best way that I could and should have, you know, but to keep it 100 with y'all. People asked me like, you you coming back, you come back when, when they first were asking me if I was coming back, I'm like, nah. I'm like, but if I did come back, it's only one person I'll come back for, you know? So, you had that warrior mentality for sure. I'm curious, I'm curious, Showtime.

[00:16:34]um Two things, really. I guess the first thing is, do you believe your father saw something in that fight that maybe he hadn't seen before? Like you said, this was a very awkward call and not. not the usual kind of call that you think your dad would have done. Do you think he saw something that worried him in that moment? Like either your urgency to try to prove something, like trying to get back, trying to win those rounds back, trying to get more points scored.

[00:17:09]Or do you think this was more, well go ahead and answer that and then I'll ask the next question. Well I do think that he could recognize that I wasn't in it mentally. Right. And so my dad's thing has always been, um, you got all the physical talent, all that we need to build your mind up. If we build your mind up, you're really ready to go through a brick wall.

[00:17:32]Then I know that you're right and you're ready. Right. So you fast forward and the things that he said after the fight, people are, you know, booing him because they don't know me to not train. They don't know me to not prepare. They don't know me to not do the runs and everything that I need to do. But what has it done to his expectations, right? So once you fast forward, you see those moments happen in his mind, my son's not ready to go through this brick wall. And that's why he stopped the fight. And so do you think this was more of him recognizing something from the boxing aspect of your life or just something that a father sees where I don't think my boy is going to make it out of this. I got to do something to help my son.

[00:18:17]Like, did he see you more as his child? in that ring than a boxer in that ring? You know, funny enough, you asked that question because, well, the other side of that too is people often, especially when I found out I went down to Mexico, I did an interview with Marco Antonio Barrera. He tells me that his dad brought him to boxing but never trained him. And he was surprised that my dad and I had done everything that we've done. Apparently in Mexican culture, It's from the pond for fathers to be in the corners for the dad. They feel like, they feel like the dad can't make the, that can't have the separation between being a dad and being a coach. I can tell you that. Right. She thinks that right there, there wasn't a boxing call that was, uh, I know my son and I know my son wasn't ready for this moment. And now here's the, here's his moment. And I know that he can't make it through this moment. Again, like here's the aspect of team. People think that we're in the middle of the ring by ourselves. We're not. There's cues that you get from your corner while the fight's happening that, you know, help you and guide you through the fight. And then of course, when you come back to the corner, that's the biggest moment for the team to do what they have to do. And I think that right there in the moment, my bad didn't look at the team and say, what do y'all think? You know, the team probably would have said, let him go Kenny, he's fine. You know? And right there is a moment where dad had to be able to realize I'm not dad right now. I'm coach. I got other people I can lean on and let's all figure this out, you know? And coincidentally, that's how Kansas camp is. I love it. It's well, the team is, you know, they all know what's the team. They all spoke up. They all had their input. And at the end of the day, Bo Mac led the ship, but Bo Mac was always willing to let everybody else drive when they needed it.

[00:20:14]I just think it's interesting that uh right that you would have, I don't wanna frame this the wrong way. I definitely don't wanna term this the wrong way, but it's almost like, it's almost a case of like, I'm not giving up on this fighter. I'm giving up on this fight.

[00:21:02]Like, it's not that I don't think my son can handle this. I just don't think, I think with everything maybe he saw, it's just like, this is one he won't win. Like I think- You know, listen, to me at the end of the day, It's like you in a cage with a tiger and that tiger is running after your son. Are you gonna hold that bullet and let your son make it back? Get out of that cage or you just gonna, you you're gonna kill it, just suck. You know, so I think right there was, you know, he killed it himself. But I think if we had gotten two more rounds, it might've been some special rounds. I don't know. It was a tough fight. It was a good fight.

[00:21:39]It a good fight. And I can remember, as you said earlier, Your job is to win the hearts of people when you get in that ring. And I can remember, I had my entire family watching that fight, you because we were invested in you at that point. had like my little girls at that point were in it. Like they were cheering for you. And I mean, it was a cool moment for me that I never got to tell you about, it was a really kind of special moment. you know, that close. That close. But so now your father though has trained you from day one. He has been with you from day one. Take us back though, I kinda wanna hear about your first title. Just how that must've felt and you stepping in that ring and winning a world championship for the first time and the crowd and that experience. You know what, I must take you all the way back to my childhood too. I had my first title when I was eight years old. You guys imagine I started training. The summertime I was four years old. I started training before I was five. Wow. A lot of the stuff I did as a grown ass man, when I was five years old, uh people used to always call my dad militant. I didn't, when I was a kid, I never even knew what that, I didn't know what that word meant. ah My dad very militant, very uh structure, uh very what I say is it, and don't do anything different. You know what mean? And if you imagine like that kind of stuff in retrospect, especially with me having kids now, I realized how useful the tools of being able to tell somebody this to step left twice, step right once, and then step left again three times. When someone can do exactly what you ask them to do when you want them to do it, it really, it maps out the kind of success they'll have in life, you know?

[00:23:29]So the kind of success I had, it was dirtier than me as a kid, right? So let me take you guys to my very first amateur fight, and then I'll take you to. the IBS championship because they really do align, right? So you start doing this when you five, you're doing it like a grown man, you get in the ring and you're very structured, one, two, like this, But then they'll start tight like this, right? So I'm boxing this kid and for two, one minute round, I hit him with a jab and then he's all over. And you know, I get off, get him off me. I him with a one-two and then he's all over me again, right? So we're going into the last round and here's one of those moments that I was talking about. My dad tells me, I'm eight years old, it's 60 seconds in between a round. I don't know how my dad was able to do this kind of stuff. I come back to the corner, he says, Shauna, I don't know if you're winning this fight. He said, you gotta fight this kid back. You gotta back him up. You gotta throw punches and you can't stop throwing punches. My dad said, you know, you know what a thunderstorm is. Yes. He said, what did it do on a thunderstorm? I said, it rains. He said, that's right. It rains in the doesn't stop. I want you to run across that rain, throw punches and don't stop.

[00:24:46]This is what my dad said, y'all. And 60 seconds. My dad said, my dad said, I want you to throw punches and don't stop. He said, don't stop until they turn off the light and put all the chairs away. That my dad's in 60 seconds. He could have found something. It's 20, 20, 21.

[00:25:04]Anyway, so I run up house to rain. I throw punches on his kid and I'm boxing him like he's boxing me, but I'm strong. I'm physical. I back him up. He's on the corner. He's on the rope fight in. I went in the very first fight that I had. And to me that really birthed the style and the mentality that I had in the ring. So what we would do, we would box real good for one round y'all. And then For two rounds, I would get down like I'm in a springing stance, like I'm a wide receiver, Springing stance, the bell rings and I would literally run across the ring and I would just throw punches until the bell rings, walk back to the corner and then do it all over again. That became my style. I was known for running across the ring, backing guys up, guys not able to get me off of them. And even referees would step in sometimes when the bell rings, they would step in because they knew. I was running across the race. He's one angle to get out of their corner, know, all that kind of stuff. You're fast where you start going longer rounds, longer fights and stuff like that. And you get away from that whole aggressive, that whole aggressive mentality to run across the ring. But the aggressive mentality never left me. Right. So you fight for it. And I got Devon Alexander and the IBF championship. That's my first championship 2013. And. Devon had had a couple of world championships, had had a couple of big fights, he had been on HBO and all that kind of stuff and I was like kind of like the new kid on the block. I had ESPN under my belt. I had had a couple of Showtime fights but I hadn't graduated. Graduation is HBO, right? So at this point time, HBO hadn't gone yet but this fight was on Showtime. um The only thing that was said was that Evan Alexander and Shawn Porter fought when they were eight years old and Devin won. And that was enough for me, y'all. Like that was enough for me. Like I don't need to tell y'all how I'm going to beat them, that I'm going to because y'all not going to believe me. So I'm going just show you. And that dude couldn't, he just couldn't handle the workload that I was bringing.

[00:27:16]Yeah. And I'll never forget, man. the bell rings for the last round and I had no doubt that I wanted to fight, but I don't know how to behave. Like, you know, being a world champion, like I don't know, like how do you behave? You know? So I'm like, it's another brainer that I wanted to fight. Well, you know, what do I do? So I'm like, I'm going to just close my eyes and try to feel the moment, you know? And we got to the back room with the bell and people jumping all around. And my dad is saying, we're not excited because we always knew we was going be here. We were, we knew we were going to get here. So this is not a surprise.

[00:27:54]There's no reason to be excited. That whole militant mindset that he had has never gone anywhere. Right. So I really never, I never really celebrated that fight. You know what I mean? Um, but I've had a lot of big moments that went in the WBC title. Um, I had had my son earlier that year and, um, I told people, man, that fight in, I don't know whether or not I won. So. The anticipation of like hearing your name like it was different. I knew that I crushed Devin, know? And shot the Devin, that's my boy. Me and daddy kind of went back and fed him. And I thought that I was doing my thing, but you never know, you know? My name got called as the winner that belt. And I'll never forget, man, like my heart dropped and It was the same experience that I had seeing my first child be born. Wow. Exactly. When he came into it was like, wow, he's there. I was wow. And so winning the W was like, wow, I actually won it. This was my only goal and I, wow, I won it. So a crazy surreal moment seeing my son born and winning the WBC championship. That's crazy that you had no idea. You went in. You had no idea if they're going to raise your hand or not. Listen, man, funny things happen in the boxing world. Funny things happen. I tell people we, we, we met out that fight one round at a time and that fight worked exactly how we knew it was going to work all the way to the last round. And you still, sometimes you never really know. Oh yeah. And we'll be right back. And now, back to the show. Go ahead, Joc. You kind of answered it, but I just wanted to bring it up. When I was researching for the interview, I didn't realize you played football at a high level as a kid. when I read that, and then watching you fight, watching the fight over your style, I was like, oh yeah, he fights like like you play a football. Like a running back. Ready, set, go. You know what saying? Ready, set, go. Okay, that plays over. When he said go, it's like you take off and you run in and you stick off. So, I'll talk about that.

[00:30:58]Yeah, my pace was different from a lot of dads. My dad's thing was we're punching, we're moving, we're fainting. That was his thing. If we're not punching, we're moving. If we're not moving, we're fainting. So, I always had, I was always this perpetual motion. You know what mean?

[00:31:15]Even that word. My dad was telling me perpetual movement. I'm eight, nine years old. Like what is perpetual me? But the style didn't really come from football. I love football. I was, you know, pretty good. I played running back and played, you know, safety. I never left the field. Love ball. But the separation between football and boxing is you got 10 other guys you got to rely on where boxing is just. Like I said, that whole little one-on-one component.

[00:31:49]And I was like, I told my dad, I know what I'm going do and I know what you're going to do. I said, let's do the Boston thing instead of going to college and playing ball. And he was favorite, you know, and I think there's no doubt that it was the best decision I could have made. Now you've understated your football career. Let me just talk about football. You were not just a good football player up in Akron, Ohio. You had all sorts of records up there.

[00:32:14]I was good. was good. Um, got, uh, I got a tight, um, that touchdown record, uh, six touchdowns in one game. Um, people know the Hall of Famer Larry Zonkala held that same record at my high school. I tied that record and, uh, my dad was pissed. They, took me off the field. I'm like, it's six touchdowns. What you want me to do? And you know, the whispers of me breaking the touchdown record. You know, and I'm like, I don't, I don't get it. Um, but I realized how big that deal that was, but yeah, man, I, uh, I was good. I, I was good without the kind of preparation and dedication that a lot of kids had and now have football.

[00:33:01]If I had that same kind of dedication, I, you would have saw me in the league 100%. I ran a four, five, I ran the four or five without ever using the parachute to help me. Increase my speed. You know me like that was the kind of stuff that I was able to do with just getting on the field You know Wow Go ahead. We've done it I've been trying to get in it. I got two questions for first off. Do you think you made the right decision? Picking boxing over football.

[00:33:31]That's reason you why this let me tell you why I know I made the right decision. I didn't realize How much people love box I didn't realize how much people revere and respect fighter.

[00:33:47]My whole life, all I wanted to do was play ball. I boxed because that was just what we did.

[00:33:51]I grew up doing it. That was just what we did. We went to tournaments, we won tournaments, we lost tournaments, we just kept going. But football was a seasonal thing in Ohio. So was like, whenever football came around, nothing else mattered. But I played on two different high schools, where I was the best player on the field. struggling to get wins and all that kind of stuff and I was just like man I can't do this anymore right so when I turned pro in boxing I kept my head down like I'm still not paying attention to the rest of the boxing world only thing that matters is what I'm doing I'm not paying attention to Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley and all these other names and all these other guys I'm not paying attention to I'm just doing my thing And once I get to a point where everybody wants to interview me, once we done talking about me, they want to talk about everybody else. I think years of lying and interviews based off of the small knowledge that I had because I didn't want to see anything. I don't want to do anything else. But fast forward, I started doing commentary and stuff like that. And I looked in the mirror one day and I was like, I can't keep bullshitting these interviews. Like it's going to catch up to them. So I started.

[00:35:10]Re-hosting and I thought um, um Looking at all of the information and watching these fighters and doing my research and all this kind of stuff and This was something that I always wanted to do so I just was good at it, you know doing interviews Interview with somebody I've always been good at because it what I wanted to do was what my heart was So I get to a point where I'm not in the ring a lot but people are still watching me because of the interviews and stuff like that I'm doing. And so I'm able to get in rooms with like all of these NFL players, the NBA players, rappers, actors, comedians. And the only thing they want to talk about is boxing, y'all. Boxing. All right, then I'm gonna talk about is the movies. All I'm gonna talk about is the comedy. I left y'all to see my acumen and all these other things. The only thing y'all want to talk about is boxing. And it helped me realize like to the point of your question. That was when I realized I picked the right, I picked what God wanted me to pick.

[00:36:12]Because this sport is gonna allow me to be seen and heard and gonna allow me to move in the way that God wants him to move so that I can touch the hearts and the lives that I need to touch. And that's when I really realized that. I was like, I gotta let it go, y'all.

[00:36:31]I'll pick boxing and let the... Let the football world, let that all go, because there's so many more people here that need you, you know? Now, you were talking about at the end of the Danny fight, where you don't know whether you won or lost a fight. Has there ever been a fight that you just knew that came down to a decision, right? That you knew you whooped this dude, and then the decision went the other way? And has there been a fight where you'd like, man, there's no way I won this fight? if by decision the judges give you the fight?

[00:37:05]don't think Well, I don't wanna say give you a fight, give you the fight, but believe that It's never been a fight that I felt like I lost. I didn't have the luxury of being on the other side of bad decisions. I've only been on the bad side of bad decisions. My fight I had with Udenis Ugak, we fought outside in California in March, I think, March or April, so it was still cool out. It rained a little bit that night and everything. And again, we got our game plan and my dude, my dad said, this kid is slow. He can't move his feet. Move on him all night and boxing from the outside and right after round. That's exactly what we did. Y'all.

[00:37:49]And there were moments where I wanted to go after him and my dad's like, you don't need to go after. He can't keep up with your foot movement. Your face is keeping them off balance.

[00:37:58]You're beating them to the punch. Just keep doing what you're doing. We're in the middle of the ring at the end of the fight, smiling until they say it's a split decision. I looked over at my dad and was like, like, like, and my dad like, ah, you know, this boxing game, you know, this boxing game. So I'm like, I did everything that I needed to do. How could y'all even see me losing that fight? One score for him, one score for me. And I was just like, man, they're not taking this from me. I won this fight. Right. And so. I'm peeling my hand up before the ref makes a knife because I want the ref. I'm like, oh, you know what it is, right? And you know, my hand got raised. Um, but that was a situation where I felt like the judges thought that I was going to come in the ring and do one thing. And because I did something different, they did, they couldn't compute it in their minds that he's winning the fight. They, they're computing he's losing because this guy forcing him to bounce this way. I see you Dennis' manager after the fight. True story. I saw him after the fight. He walked up to me, gives me dap and says, I told him you were going do that. I said, what? He said, I told him you were going to move him back all night. I told him you were going to do that.

[00:39:13]I said, really? He said, yeah, man. said, congratulations. When your management know you lost that fight, there's no doubt. know what I'm saying? I hate my humble own act because I get around to people that still think that I lost that fight. I'm like, y'all just don't understand boxing. Go back and take a look at the numbers. Go back and take a look at every single moment I won that fight, you know? Wow, wow. You, I saw, again researching, I saw you just aspiring with one of my favorite fighters ever, Pacquiao. You're training for the Cotto fight, I believe it was? Yeah, yeah. What was it like being in the ring with Manny? uh And that was Manny when he was kinda near his peak. Like, he was incredible. So we sparred many fights. We sparred him when he, he, for Miguel Cotto. And then we sparred with them again when he fought Shane Mosley. So I went over to the Philippines for the first time when he fought Miguel Cotto.

[00:40:06]And now I'm a young kid. I'm like 24, 25, something like that. And, um, I just, I was like, man, like, I know I'm ready for this, but I hope that he wins because if he loses. I felt like they're gonna blame everything on the young kid that came in, right? He was doing too much.

[00:40:23]The first time I met him was the first time we sparred. So ah I'm talking to Freddie Roach, his trainer, Freddie, know, Manny walks up and Manny talks to Freddie and I'm like, uh, and you know, Freddie introduces me to Manny and I say, what's up Manny? And then Freddie says, this is your sparring partner. And Manny looks at me and he's like, oh, okay, cool.

[00:40:44]Let's do it. And I was like, I used to people smiling and being happy to spar with me. This dude is, that's my, hello? Yeah. The rain man and I'll never forget the first round. We moving around, we doing our thing and I didn't really know how I wanted to attack him. And I got caught up being hesitant. He caught me with a straight left and knocked me on the rims.

[00:41:08]I said, oh snap, got my shit together. We kept boxing, know, the sparring session ended for the day. We back to, we went back to the hotel. dad said, you about to get fired. hear bullets getting, what you throwing? know, you gotta be in the line like that. But after that, man, we were off to the races. mean, said it was sparring that you could pay for. Wow. The first time we sparred with Manny, I feel, another quick story. The first time we sparred with Manny, we get back to LA from the Philippines and nobody told me that I was fired. They, I showed up for sparring. They said, no, we're not going to use. We're not gonna use Shawn today. Cool. Show up tomorrow, the next day, we're not gonna use Shawn for tomorrow, all right? I spoiled other people, you know that whole thing? Show up, a whole week went by and I'm not using me. And now my dad's pissed. My dad is, uh he's young, I'm young, we don't understand. Man, he about to lose. We ain't seen him do more than 10 rounds. He ain't ready for a turnaround fight. oh He ain't working hard, this and that, this and that. He fired you, you're the best one in Kansas, get him laid. You know, my dad went, ah. At the end of the day, they paid him. At the end of the day, they gave us the ticket to the fight, the whole nine. And I'm sitting next to a man that thinks that man, he's about to lose. On top of the fact that in my mind, I already got that in my mind. If he loses, he's not going to blame me. So I'm like on the edge of my seat the whole fight. He's fighting Miguel Cotto and wiping Miguel up the whole fight. I think I didn't get comfortable. Until like the ninth or the tenth round, I finally stepped back and was like, all right, he got it. You know, after the fight and everything, went to Freddie and I asked him some questions. said, Freddie, why, you know, why didn't you guys keep working with me? Freddie said, you are too much work for many at the end of a camp. Early on in the camp, that's great. You're great work. But at the end of the camp, he doesn't need that kind of work. It's too much on his body. He needs more time to rest and recover. And it was just too much. didn't need you anymore.

[00:43:20]I'm like, well, my baratheon got fired, so make sure you tell oh him. Hey, bring us back when he fights Shane Mosley. He's from Philippines. He's got other Sparring Partners along with me. We come back to uh LA. I show up the first day, I show up early. Manny says, make sure you're ready to spar. You're the only one going with Manny. the rest of the way. I said, I think you guys won't use me this time. This fight different. He needs you this entire camp.

[00:43:51]Wow. So because, you know, you got a different fighter that fights at a different pace that hits with a different type of strength and is going to, so he needs someone. I guess the first time they utilize you is to get through the early rounds, right? To try to set the tone. But the second one is like, no, we need you to fight him. fully throughout because that's what Shane's gonna do. Shane's gonna fight him in that same style. Shane probably hits a little harder than Cotto. He's got a little more experience, you know what I'm saying, under his belt and he needs to know what a punch is gonna feel like in that seventh round and that ninth round and that tenth round where there's still some fight left in that dog, you know what I'm saying? Exactly what it was. Exactly what it was. Wow. What do you think about like skipping ahead here a little bit, the culture of boxing today? I felt like, you know, in your early part of your career, you know, the guys that came before you, that was in some respects, that was the heyday, right? And where we are today, it's a different world.

[00:44:55]Like as a commentator, where do you think we are in terms of the culture of boxing today?

[00:45:02]I think just like with the real world, boxers have lost Um, the perception of truth, right?

[00:45:11]So like in the real world, the perception of truth is the only people I need to be concerned about is the three little boys that I have and the wife that I have in my home. But you pick up your phone and you're concerned with everybody else in the entire world. And it blurs your perspective of life. It blurs your perspective of reality. It blurs your perspective of your daily everything that you have to do because you're so focused on what the world has told you that you should and need to focus on. So same thing, I think with boxing, I think a lot of boxers are, um their perception of what being a professional boxer, professional athlete is skewed. They all think it, you know, as long as I'm getting the likes, as long as I'm getting the follows, as long as I'm getting paid, why I can't, I don't want to tell you if you're not doing this the way that I know it's supposed to. to be done. Fighters nowadays, I think along with coaching, I think it has a lot to do with coaching too. A lot of these fighters don't fight. A lot of these fighters don't understand or put in the kind of work needed for a full, or less rounds to be exciting from top to bottom. Shacor Stevenson, I think it's a time for people to really salute and respect his style. That's his style. To me, style is sexy. Completely different from my style. But you can't beat it. And when you're that on, that locked in, that's, um, that's junk. To me, that's, that's what boxing is.

[00:46:52]And a lot of fighters, there's, there's this separation here of fighters that don't got the kind of defense that shit quarter got, but they trying to fight in his state. don't kind of, don't got the kind of offense that I got. and you're just trying to like walk your way through a fight. What are we doing? You know, so I think that boxing needs to get back to um what he historically has always been. We fight for three minute rounds. We fight every single second of every round. We fighting. When we ain't fighting, we punching. And when we ain't punching, we moving. Yeah, that's a good point. You know what I got an analogy I thought about for a while. So I come from the music business, right? So I met Bun. the There was a point when Puffy came into the music business and really blew up. And people looked at Puff and said, they wanted like the lifestyle that he projected, know, the cars and the women.

[00:47:50]But nobody really realized how hard he worked, right? And I take that as the same way with Floyd. People see Floyd with the cars and da da da da da, the 50 and 0. But I feel like a lot of boxers... want that part of it, but at the end of the day, Floyd was getting up at four in the morning and doing miles. Like he worked so hard at it. I feel like that side of his career got overclipsed by him going for the 50 and O and, you know, having 40 cars and all that other stuff. It's kind of a similar thing. Like what you're saying, like they want it, but they don't want to really do the work part of it, you know? I talked to somebody, I'm not going to say their name, but I am going to this story. I talked to somebody that's close to Taint Davis. Okay. I told him, said, tell Taint I'm here for him. I said, I know what it is. I said, Taint is just done with the business. People think that he don't want to fight. People think that, you know, he getting soft and, you know, he don't know, you know, he got, he got children now and he don't want to be that bad guy. I said, people don't know what I know. I said, the kid is just tired of the business being what it is. When he climbed pro, he climbed pro under the TMT, TM, whatever, the Mayweather program. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:49:10]The money team. pro, they were moving him like Floyd had been moved later on in his career.

[00:49:16]They didn't move him like Floyd was moving before he became money. Right? So now, gets to a point where We don't, we no longer want to see you in the ring with guys we don't know. We no longer want to see you in the ring with guys that ain't in your way class. We only want to see you in the ring with guys that are at the top. And because the business is, is demanding something different from what he came into the same with. He's looking at it to your point.

[00:49:45]I want everything that Floyd got and why, why I gotta do all this to get it. I'm them out every time I get in the ring. What else you want me to do? Well, the business is requiring you to do a little bit more. The business is now requiring you to step up and do something that, you know, we didn't tell you how to do it for. But now you all do things a little bit different. And because the business don't want to give him what he wants, he's saying he's like, fuck it. I don't want to do it no more. I just don't want to do it anymore. So I told him, said, yo, tell Tank he needs to have a conversation with me. Tell Tank I've been through exactly what he's been through. You got to buckle down to get where you want to get. He gonna find out real soon that he ain't got there yet. Even though they moved him like he was already there. He gonna find out he ain't there yet. He gonna realize he got no other way to get it. And then he gonna try to come back, you know? So uh I've tried to reach out to the kid, give him some life coaching and all that kind of stuff. But I used him as that example because I think he's the prime example of someone that gets what Floyd has without going through everything Floyd had to go through. You get to a point where the tactics of the catch up with you, the percentages that you got to give out to everybody, catch up with you. Uh, to having to fight somebody that you not picking this time gets comes up against. There's a number of things that fighters go through. And until you come through and start doing this thing, realizing all those things that I listed and more are bigger components than your opponent. That's when, uh, that's when it really gets serious. And you're right Jeff like I don't think people really understand the work ethic of Floyd You know what saying?

[00:51:27]Like I remember flying down with J Prince he was prepping for I think the Zapp fight and ah You know they so we go to the gym and the workouts ridiculous, right? Like the workouts ridiculous then we go and eat then they go out to the club and keep in mind He's got a big section. He's got all the bottles you could want. He's not touching any of them Right, think he eats maybe one meal a day. know Jay Prince only eats one meal a day. I think Floyd doesn't really eat many meals a day either, but here's the crazy thing. We leave the club, like it's super late, right? Like you say, like gets up in the morning and goes running. If he's in the club and it's time to run, they leave the club and then he goes running. Like several miles. you know, leaves the club, like turned up, all of that, leaves.

[00:52:32]that's the way This is prepping for a fight in less than a month. And he's still keeping the regular Floyd Money Mayweather hours, right? And then he's keeping the TMT boxing hours all at the same time and not. really, like he's not partying any less, right? Like obviously he's not drinking, doesn't, he's super clean, but he's not, he's no less turnt up. Knowing in his mind that, you know, shit, as soon as they hit about four o'clock, we gotta get up out of this bitch, it's time to go run. You gotta go run. You know, and I don't think these young boys have that kind of discipline at all. He's built differently, you know what I mean?

[00:53:13]And it's stories like that, that people, either they don't know him or they forgot him. It's stories like that when you say well who would win floyd or ray lennard floyd or ray robinson floyd or um karen scoffer floyd or you know this guy that guy this guy that guy they don't realize and understand floyd was literally built different right so and my i'm going to give you guys my perspective and my ideology here my belief is that when god when we're created God has given us all the tools to do whatever it is that we're going to do right along the way There's things that we go through. I tell people all the time like oh, know if I mention this but I do life coaching and So I have the opportunity to to like counsel people and stuff like that. Okay, people don't realize There's a such thing as positive trauma the only thing y'all think is Negative trauma because the word trauma has this negative connotation impact to it. All right But here's an example. I'll use myself as an example. I never really even realized my dad knew this, right? So I'm like nine years old. He's driving me to school.

[00:54:30]It's the winter time. My dad has the heat blowing in my face. He was just trying to heat the car, but it's blowing in my face. I never knew my dad knew this story. And I'm sitting here and I'm just taking it. I never say anything. We like 45 minutes. to get to school that day. Took all that in my face. My coach Wade, my strength and conditioning coach just told me this story like two weeks ago. We were hanging out and he said, your dad told me that he knew you were different when you were a kid. He knew you were built different. said, well, he said he told me that he had, he said he told me that he had the heat blasting in your face when you were a kid. I said, yeah. He said, he told me at the heat, blasting your face and you just sat there the whole time, you didn't say anything. He said, he said, said, damn Kenny, that's messed up. And a lot like me, guess my dad didn't realize that it was blowing the way that it was blowing, but somehow he was able to at some point recognize what I was going through and continue to allow me to go through it. To me, that's positive trauma because when you get, you come across things in life. that get hard, that get uncomfortable, that you can either speak up and back down, or you can step up and go forward. To me, that's positive trauma. So for Floyd, a lot of positive trauma in his life, know, seeing his dad and his uncle do everything that they did in and out of the ring, not touching the bottles. He learned from his family. I can't do that. If I do that, that's going to mess up everything that I have.

[00:56:16]But the other side of that, the positive trauma of seeing his father do everything that he's done, knowing I'm built like that, can do it too. You know, so that's what I mean when I say Floyd is built different, know, number one, I made him. And then the other side of that was, you know, he put himself in the right environment to really cultivate and hone everything that he became. Crazy. Y'all watching that fight? Y'all watching Floyd and Pac? That was gonna be my next question to you. Like, having sparred with one of these guys before, right? But understanding the work ethic side of the other one, add in the age difference in both fighters. Who do you think is in a better position to take advantage of the opponent in this fight? You know what's crazy, man? I hope they don't hate me for it, but... I still think Floyd beats Manny Pacquiao.

[00:57:13]Manny's been active, Manny's been back in the gym and doing all these kinds of things. Floyd, know, Floyd probably been still in the club and still going and doing his regimen that people don't know nothing about. Probably still on his job. But to me, Floyd has really taken care of himself. Floyd has not taken the kind of punches and punishment that Manny has taken in his career, right? So I always refer to vehicles. I always prefer to high-performance cars. At this point, both these guys are what I would call luxury, antique cars that we're to drive these things at 10, 20 miles an hour and put that thing back in the garage. get to a point where you're like... You to that point in your life where you're no longer the Lamborghini that's supposed to be doing 150. That beautiful girl, all gold, Rolls Royce that don't even leave the garage, right? So we got two empty cars that's pulling out. And to me, the empty car that has less mileage on it is the empty car that wins. And that's Floyd in my opinion.

[00:58:25]You're going to flood.

[00:58:29]Give me another one for Anthony Carl, y'all, because I know y'all, it's not a crazy call.

[00:58:33]I that was a good analogy. I think that was a great that very much. Yeah. I feel really good. Yeah, I do. So you're a life coach. You're commentating. You have a podcast. You mentioned the documentary. We got to ask you a little bit about that. You got a lot going on right now. Tell us a little bit about all this stuff and what gets you excited. So the people always ask if you're coming back and that I said I'm too busy. I'm too busy about the gym this goes on I retired with a plan and Plans don't always work out but the favorite I got has on me my plans are all Working out I retired and my thing was I'm gonna get into the commentary.

[00:59:17]I love it I'm not exclusive so I can go anywhere do anything at any time I absolutely love it straight up and down. Always knew that I would. The doc, I felt like I started working on the doc in 2023 and I felt like the further I get into retirement, the further people get away from hearing about me. And so let me get this thing out immediately. Talk to my, director this in January. I said, when I'm no longer in a rush, it's going to move whenever God wants it to move. I didn't realize I was still gonna be as active and as in the public eye as I am, which is amazing and redundant, because I'm like, you know, knew what you had set up.

[00:59:58]I got a five million dollar budget film that I'm starring in. And that is a goal that I have had probably since like 2003, 2004. Whenever, whenever it's shot to my boy, Jamie Foxx, whenever he dropped, I might need security. That right there, that whole stand up act, it made me want to pursue acting. And I was able to land a lead role in a boxing film, which should be getting funded now after about four years. We should be getting funding coming in in the next like 30 days or less. So those are the things. That's incredible. Yeah. And, uh, and Tom shot went over your head with this one, man. I shout out, um, and at chili kill and he wants me to do the entire soundtrack. That's, that's awesome. Yeah. So we got to sing on board along with a couple of other people. Um, Nick tutorial is on board. Um, chill Mitchell is on board. Um, my boy, know he ain't gonna mind me shouting his name. Um, Omar Miller, no, Omar Miller, Omar Gooding, uh, later to be in this thing too. So. It's gonna be a nice one, It's boxing. It's not a boxing film, not all about boxing. There's a lot of different stories in one, but the boxing aspect, think, is what makes it unique is you've never had an actual boxer portray the lead boxer in a film. that's the writer-director's vision there.

[01:01:34]And I feel like I'm gonna say, man, you got the right guy to trust me. There's nobody else to do it. Yeah, that's something they typically make like the real fighters the opponent. Yeah.

[01:01:45]Yeah. Yeah Yeah, that's true We're trying to involve as much of the boxing world as we can because like I said, you know plant can't homage To a sport that has you know Such rich history You to me you do all that history when you don't include the real life of boxing in and film, you know, so I know Over the years, they've done that with the Creed films. They've included more boxing, commentary, and all that stuff. But this one, we're gonna hit this one up really hard. all in. Real quick, before we go, who's your favorite boxer of all time? Favorite boxer of all time, Marvelous Marmot Hacks. Ooh, I like that. That's a good For me, it was the name. I was like, you know? And then when I was able to see the fight that really just, you because of my heart was this fight with Tommy Herringer. It was a long run and a short amount of time in that fight. that's the thing for me. My thing was I want to be able to do what he did. You know what mean? I thought he was just a complete boxer, boxer, puncher, not willing to back down from anything, anyone. I just thought he was, if you were creating a boxer, a robot, you'd be creating a version of Marvel in Marvel. Marvelous Marvel Hagel, you know, and it is a great man. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Showtime Shawn Porter is not a bad name either. I'm excited now. I'm excited about the documentary. I'm excited about everything you're doing. I love it. I love to the movie. I love seeing you still in the public eye.

[01:03:30]It's you. know, Andre Ward did his documentary and I asked him a question. They just kind of came to me. We did an interview. asked him, I said, what's the purpose of your documentary?

[01:03:43]And he was like, what's your purpose? What do you expect people to get from it? And he said, man, I just want people to understand me. He said, you may not agree with the moves I made as a professional fighter. He said, you may not have liked them. But I'm telling my story so that at least you can understand why I did what I did, why I was who I was. He said, they're not gonna, you can love me, you can hate me. But as long as people understand why I was who I was, he said that my job is done. And I was like, well, now I gotta ask myself that question. Why am I doing my documentary? I was like, duh, like you want people to find inspiration in the things that you've gone through that they never knew about. You know what mean?

[01:04:35]If you had known some of the things that I was walking to the ring with, you wouldn't believe, first of all, that that guy was able to do you that, walk into the ring with that. And now I you to realize that you can get up and go to work, you can get up and go to school, you can get up and deal with your kids, you can get up and deal with the world, you know, the same way that I did it, you can do it too. And people ain't throwing no punches at you, you know? Not trying to the block off. Yeah, sir. Well, Shawn, this was fantastic. Thank you for pulling back the curtain on so much of this. It's kind of interesting to hear all that behind the scenes and even when you hear about the last round that you ever boxed, the amount of stuff that was going on in that short amount of space, it's unbelievable. And that's why I say, you know, like when I was able to rewind and be like, man. That kind of stuff my dad has done periodically through my life, not just in that one time. was like, man, the one time he could have did it. You know? But we live, we learn, we continue to grow and get better.

[01:05:41]So that's why I'm doing it. That's right. This is dope. I enjoyed this. This was great, man.

[01:05:46]Thank you for coming on. That was dope. Thank you, God, for having me. All right. Until next time. Leave us your comments or questions for the show on Instagram at unglossypod or YouTube at Merrick Studios and check out Merrick Studios Plus for early access and live recordings.

[01:06:01]Spread the word fans. I'm Tom Frank. That was the great Showtime Shawn Porter. I'm Jeffery Sledge and I am Bun B. Unglossy is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios.