Shawn Porter has made a bold prediction ahead of arguably the greatest card in boxing history.
In the main event of the mammoth card in Riyadh on February 22, Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol do battle once again for Beterbiev’s undisputed light heavyweight championship, which the Russian captured last October in their thrilling first encounter that he won via majority decision.
On the undercard, Joseph Parker and Martin Bakole clash in an intriguing heavyweight showdown that comes after Daniel Dubois pulled out of his scheduled bout against Parker due to an unexpected illness.
Also featuring is WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson who defends his crown against Britain’s Josh Padley, and Vergil Ortiz faces Israil Madrimov in a defence of his WBC ‘Interim’ super welterweight title.
Speaking on the PorterWay Podcast, two-time welterweight champion Porter predicted a maiden career defeat for Ortiz, claiming Madrimov has ‘everything’.
“I know you all hate hearing me say 50/50, I’m going Madrimov. Madrimov has the style, the technique, the power, the speed, the everything. I think he gonna give Ortiz his first loss.
And it’s okay, I’m not saying it’s okay to lose but you losing to a great, you know what I mean. I saw a lot when he fought Crawford, I read in between the lines, I saw what he was trying to do, I saw what he was able to stop Crawford from doing and that fight played itself out.”
Madrimov suffered the first defeat of his career last August in a defence of his WBA super-welterweight title against Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford. The 30-year-old from Uzbekistan pushed ‘Bud’ all the way, but did not do enough to be given the victory and keep a hold of his crown.
He will hope that isn’t the case against knockout puncher Ortiz Jr, who had a 100% stoppage ratio prior to his last fight in which he beat Serhii Bohachuk by decision despite suffering two knockdowns.
