Two-time world welterweight champion Shawn Porter doesn’t believe rising star Conor Benn is ready for him or the leading lights of the 147lbs division just yet.
Benn caught the eye with an 80-second blitz of Samuel Vargas at the weekend and the highly-respected Porter was among the names the Ilford puncher mentioned as an imminent opponent.
Yet the battle-proven Porter doesn’t believe that’s a viable fight at this stage, given the duo’s gulf in experience and feels Benn still needs time to fine-tune his skillset given a lack of amateur pedigree.
“I don’t think there’s much to gain for me,” former IBF and WBC champion Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) told the Ringside Toe 2 Toe podcast. “The business of boxing says eight years at world championship level contention does not get in the ring with five years of boxing professionally.
“There’s no comparison there. If the phone were to ring. I don’t foresee it happening, but if it were to ring, we would kind of lean with that right there.
“When you’re getting in the ring and you’re blazing through guys, in a round or two, it’s great. It looks phenomenal, but you really don’t know. You can use that and say, ‘I’m just going to blow through those guys’, but nobody blows through Shawn Porter, nobody blows through Kell Brook, nobody blows through Errol Spence Jr.
“He certainly did not do it as an amateur, like Vergil Ortiz, Jaron Ennis. Those guys have been through the amateur programme, they know all about it. It’s only a matter of time before they get to the big time.”
Yet Porter has been impressed by Benn’s rapid progress to date and feels the potential is there for Conor to emulate his famous father Nigel at world championship level.
“From former world champions, their sons to turn pro and kind of follow in their footsteps, I haven’t seen one do it better than he’s doing it right now,” said Porter.
“I don’t know if there has been one in history to do it. Obviously, when we look at Laila [Ali] following in her dad’s footsteps, she did a phenomenal job, but I haven’t seen very many men do it.
“He looks very good. He goes in there and he wipes out Vargas, in less than two minutes. When you do something like that, you’re full of energy, you’re full of adrenaline and you feel very good about everything you can do in the boxing game. He’s 18-0 right now. What I say is take your time.”
Feature image: (L) Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing (R) Premier Boxing Champions