>The reason I partially agree is that I believe he did wanna show
>another wrinkle against Garcia, but I don't think he had a
>choice with Porter. When Porter is on you, he forces you to
>fight inside. There are points in this fight where Spence is
>trying to move away, but Porter will not get off him. I'm
>thinking of a specific point in round 9, but it happened
>multiple times. I can imagine that, at some point, trying to
>stay away from dude is just too much work... very similar to
>what we were seeing with opponents of Jarret Hurd prior to the
>J-Rock fight. Austin Trout was outboxing the fuck outta dude,
>but he got tired and said 'fuck it' and had to stay in the
>pocket more. Same with Lara even tho is game plan included
>more in-fighting. It looked pretty clear to me that Spence
>WANTED to box from a distance, but Porter ain't letting that
>shit happen lol. Garcia was trying to get inside on him but
>didn't have the quickness or the strength, the feints, the iq,
>etc.
>Overall, I think Spence deciding to bang on the inside with
>Porter was more of an adjustment that Porter forced him to
>make rather than one that he made with the intention of
>proving anything. I think he did it either because it was
>easier than trying to box, trying to box was too tired, or
>both.
>

Both Lara and Trout even at this point in their careers were much better boxers than Hurd. I think that was always his plan to eventually overwhelm them with his size and strength. Hurd does not have boxing advantages over anybody at the elite levels. He is a more athletic Margarito. I think Hurd does have some boxing ability and we will see more of it should he fight Williams again but he is not as polished as the guys at the top. He did not have an extensive amateur career and it kind of shows.

Spence on the other hand is a much better boxer than Porter. I said from the beginning I don't see any advantages for Porter. Showtime is at his best pressuring fighters. I think Errol is more effective at that because he is a heavier puncher but Errol doesn't have to just pressure guys. This is why I feel like he chose to stand there and trade to prove a point. You can make the case that both Thurman and Garcia did a better job controlling distance against Porter than Spence. He attempted to impose his will on them as well but both refused in large parts to fight on the inside and attempted to maintain distance. I wouldn't say Thurman or Garcia are most polished boxers than Spence. But you could say both of them stayed true to who they were against Porter even though Garcia came out of the short end.