By: Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
After a 12-round slugfest between the two best welterweights of the year, the rivalry finally came to an end with Errol Spence defeating Shawn Porter via split-decision in one of the best matches in welterweight history.
Both fighters came in hot, unleashing their combinations in wild exchanges.
Porter’s unorthodox style seemed to match Spence’s calm and technical boxing, as he baited Spence numerous times to engage with him in the middle rounds, with the match still fifty-fifty for the both of them.
As the rounds passed, Spence became more patient and boxed more, which started to give an edge for him in the match.
It wasn’t until the eleventh round when Spence caught Porter with a beautiful left hook that scored him a knockdown, hurting Porter and stunning him.
The twelfth round was wild, leaving the Staples Center crowd cheering and standing, with both fighters throwing everything they had as the bell sounded.
The match would go into the scorecards, two judges scored it 116-111 for Spence, while the third judge scored it, 115-112 Porter.,
With the result, analysts and fighters barraged Spence with questions about a possible fight with Manny Pacquiao, but the latter said he wanted to rest and will come back to it.
