Shawn Porter is in a story-telling mood. And at first, this one has nothing to do with boxing.
When Shawn Porter was around 10 years old, he was playing running back in a football game as his father, Kenny, coached on the sideline. On one play, a defender leveled Shawn, knocking him into the air and spilling him onto the sideline. Shawn smiled.
Well, not for long. Shawn recalled how Kenny picked him up by the shoulder pads, and yelled instructions at him that has stuck with him until this day — “Tell him to bring it some more,” Shawn recalled.
When Porter is done telling the story, it’s clear why he’ll be in the ring this Saturday against undefeated welterweight Terence “Bud” Crawford (9 p.m. ESPN+ PPV), who has long been considered one of the best fighters in the world.
Porter has always shown a willingness to take on the biggest names in the welterweight division throughout his career. In many ways, he has been the proverbial “glue guy” for Premier Boxing Champions and the entire 147-pound weight class.
It’s not by accident. It’s the only way Porter knows how to operate.
“It’s like it’s a part of my makeup,” Porter told ESPN. “It’s like who I am. The only thing that I know is, ‘Who’s the target, who’s the best? Go get him.'”
The most defining element of this current welterweight era is the inability for the best fight to get made — Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) against fellow undefeated champion Errol Spence Jr. During a virtual news conference last week, Crawford said that the fight he has pursued for so long is behind him, as all efforts to this point have been futile.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, after Saturday’s fight, Porter (31-3-1, 17 KOs) will have fought all three current welterweight champions as of Saturday — Crawford, Spence and Yordenis Ugas, with the latter representing Porter’s lone win to date against that trio to date. And a lot of that has to do with an unflinching determination that his opponents can recognize.
“Shawn Porter is no ‘pick ’em’ type of fighter,” Crawford said. “He’ll fight anybody and it’s been proven that he’ll fight anybody. That’s pretty much how you sum up who he’s been fighting, because he’s been fighting all the top welterweights in the division.”
Porter’s alignment with Premier Boxing Champions has unquestionably helped him secure big fights. Crawford, who is in the last fight of his contract with Top Rank Promotions, is facing a PBC fighter for the first time since his run in the 147-pound division.
But the matchmaking is also a manifestation of the aggressive style that has flustered opponents throughout his career. Porter recalled back to his first amateur fight as an 8-year-old, when Kenny Porter told him he needed to throw punches “until they cut the lights off” in order to ensure victory.
Over time, as father and son barnstormed the country, climbed the amateur ranks and then set off on a successful pro career, that aggressiveness has been Porter’s calling card. It has also made him a fan-friendly fighter and one who will always put on a good show.
“It’s almost like it’s two-fold, man,” Porter said. “It’s the automatic weapon to entertain fans but it’s also the automatic weapon to be successful in the ring.”
That approach was also Porter’s downfall in his 2014 loss to Kell Brook, who is the only other fighter to face both Spence and Crawford. Brook used Porter’s aggression against him as he handed the Ohio native his first professional loss.
That was probably the best version of Brook, who hasn’t quite been the same since he suffered a severe eye injury in a loss against Gennady Golovkin in 2016. In his most recent fight, one year ago this week against Brook, Crawford only needed four rounds to dispatch him by TKO.
“I know people like to make the comparison between us fighting him and Terence fighting him (in 2020),” said Kenny Porter, who still trains Shawn. “I believe that when we fought him, he was a different fighter.”
The tough fights through Porter’s career has instilled confidence and a deep bank of experiences he can pull from in critical moments. He has also faced virtually every style one can see — an aspect he believes will give him an edge against Crawford.
A win would seal Porter’s status as one of the best welterweights in his era, not just a guy who has been willing to fight the best. But while the former is up for debate, there’s no question about the latter.
Said Porter: “As I’ve gotten older and people are saying, ‘Well, you just fight everybody, why do you do that?’ I’m like, ‘This is what boxing is. This is what you’re supposed to do, right?'”
At his core, Porter is still that running back who is comfortable lowering his shoulder, plowing through whomever is in his way. That means taking on Crawford in another seek-and-destroy mission that has made him unique for his era.
“You’re looking at Bud and Bud’s the ‘boogeyman,'” Porter said, using his fingers to mimic air quotes at the end of that phrase. “Or Bud’s the guy that no one can beat, is the most feared and the most avoided and all this and that.
“I’m the kid on the sidelines that just got hit and I’m like, ‘OK, who’s next? Where is he? Here I come.'”
College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.
Wisconsin fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo on Sunday, a day after the Badgers’ 16-13 home loss to No. 1 Oregon.
In a statement, Badgers coach Luke Fickell thanked Longo for his two seasons with the program, while adding, “We are not where we need to be and believe this decision is in the best interest of the team.”
Wisconsin ranks 97th nationally in scoring and 102nd in passing while operating an Air Raid-style offense that Longo brought with him from North Carolina and other stops.
The Badgers, who lost starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to a season-ending injury Sept. 14, had only three points and 88 yards in the second half against Oregon, which rallied from a 13-6 deficit entering the fourth quarter.
Wisconsin ranked 101st nationally in scoring in Longo’s 23 games as coordinator and failed to eclipse 13 points on its current three-game losing streak. Quarterback Braedyn Locke had only 96 passing yards against the Ducks.
Fickell did not immediately announce an interim coordinator for Wisconsin’s final regular-season games against Nebraska and Minnesota.
Fickell had long targeted Longo for a coordinator role, going back to his time as Cincinnati’s coach. Longo, 56, oversaw productive offenses at Ole Miss, North Carolina, Sam Houston State and other spots but never consistently got traction at a Wisconsin program that had operated dramatically differently on offense before his arrival.
“This team still has a lot in front of us and I am committed to doing everything we can to close out this season with success,” Fickell said in his statement.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
Four-star quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. has committed to Florida, he told ESPN on Sunday, joining the Gators’ 2025 class four days after pulling his pledge from Florida State.
Jones, a four-year starter at Florida’s Mandarin High School, is ESPN’s No. 9 dual-threat passer in the Class of 2025. After multiple trips to Florida throughout his recruitment, Jones returned to campus Saturday, taking an official visit with the Gators during the program’s 27-16 win over LSU. A day later, Jones stands as the lone quarterback pledge in a 2025 Florida class that includes five pledges from the ESPN 300.
“I pretty much saw everything I needed to see when I visited last spring — I just love everything around the campus,” Jones told ESPN. “And then hanging out with the guys yesterday, seeing the camaraderie with each other, that really just sealed it for me.”
Jones was the longest-tenured member of Mike Norvell’s 2025 class at Florida State before his decommitment from the Seminoles on Thursday morning.
Jones’ exit came days after Norvell announced the firings of three assistant coaches on Nov. 10, including offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins. Jones was the first Florida State commit to pull his pledge in the wake of the staff shakeup but marked the Seminoles sixth decommitment since the start of the regular season, joining five ESPN 300 recruits who have left Norvell’s recruiting class across the program’s 1-9 start.
Jones’ commitment follows a key late-season victory for Billy Napier on Saturday and marks the Gators’ first recruiting win since athletic director Scott Strickland announced on Nov. 7 that Florida would stick with the third-year coach beyond the 2024 season.
Uncertainty over Napier’s future had weighed down Florida’s recruiting efforts in the 2025 class as the Gators began November with the No. 39 class in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle. But Jones’ pledge comes as a boost for Florida one day after the Gators hosted a handful of high-profile flip targets, including five-star offensive tackle Solomon Thomas (Florida State pledge) and four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench (Texas pledge).
When Jones signs with Florida, he’ll arrive on campus flanked by fellow in-state offensive talents in four-star wide receivers Vernell Brown III (No. 44 in the ESPN 300) and Naeshaun Montgomery (No. 115), as well as four-star running back Waltez Clark (No. 223). Florida is also set to sign a pair of in-state defenders from the 2025 ESPN 300 between four-star defensive end Jalen Wiggins (No. 68) and four-star cornerback Ben Hanks Jr. (No. 121).
With Jones’ commitment, Florida has another jolt to its momentum on the recruiting trail as the Gators seek to chart a strong finish in the 2025 cycle next month. More imminently, Florida will host No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday.
A rare souvenir postcard picturing Hank Aaron as a rookie with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues sold for nearly $200,000 at a baseball memorabilia auction that also included Ted Williams’ 1946 AL MVP award, which went for $528,750.
The Aaron postcard from the scrapbook of scout Ed Scott, who discovered Aaron, went for $199,750 following a bidding war that soared past the pre-sale estimate of $5,000-$10,000, Hunt Auctions said.
The auction included 280 items from Williams’ personal collection that had been held by his daughter, Claudia, who died last year. Among the other items were a silver bat awarded for his 1958 batting title, which sold for more than $270,000, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented to him by fellow naval aviator George H.W. Bush, which went for $141,000.
The sale also included items from the collection of Rutherford Hayes Jones, the business manager of the Washington Giants, one of the earliest Black baseball teams. The trove was discovered in 2001 in a suitcase, where it had been unseen for 40 years.
A first batch of items from Claudia Williams’ collection went up for auction in 2012 at Fenway Park and garnered more than $5 million.