Two-time welterweight champion, Shawn Porter, has revealed that he has made a new addition to his pound-for-pound rankings, following David Benavidez’ annihilation of Demetrius Andrade at the weekend.
Benavidez made relatively easy work of Demetrius Andrade on Saturday night, forcing the two-division champion to retire on his stool in between the sixth and seventh round of the bout after feeling the full effect of the relentless pressure of ‘The Mexican Monster’.
Just two months ago, Porter declared his pound-for-pound top five, with Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk making up the top three.
However, after Benavidez’s eye-catching display, ‘Showtime’ told 210 Boxing TV that he couldn’t omit the 26-year-old knockout-artist from his rankings.
“Benavidez is just too much. I’m at the point now where I just want to see him in great fights. This was a great fight tonight, ‘Boo Boo’ [Andrade] was outmatched, you could see after three rounds that it really wasn’t going to go his way, he stood in there and did what he had to do as a fighter, but at the end of the day, Benavidez outmatches everybody, he could be #3 pound-for-pound.”
“Terence is number one and I got the other ‘Monster’, Inoue, at number two. Benavidez is clearly three and I think that he is only number three because maybe I have got too much respect for the other guys, but they are interchangeable. I don’t even like pound-for-pound [rankings], so all three of them are number one to me.”
Porter even said that Benavidez didn’t need to face Canelo because fans knew the younger man was a level above. Still, the fighter wants a shot at the undisputed title.
Reports suggest that he may still have to wait for his shot at those four 168lbs belts, with Alvarez seeming more likely to face Jaime Munguia in May before taking on Benavidez in September.