Shawn Porter Wins UD10 Over Alfonso Gomez

Shawn Porter and Alfonso Gomez gave main event effort in the main support bout to Showtime's Robert Guerrero-Selcuk Aydin main event which unfolded Saturday from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The fight didn't gather all that much buzz going in, but surprised to the upside. It was an intermittently semi-chippy affair, with butts galore, but offense was ample. The welterweight scrap went to the cards, with the Clevelander Porter taking a UD10, by scores of 96-94, 97-93, 98-92.

Porter went 234-647 to 150-544 for the loser in the punch stat department. He said after that he was too aggressive and needs to work on fighting smarter. I'd agree with that.

The “Contender” alum Gomez (23-5-2 with 12 KOs; born in Mexico, lives in LA; age 31; coming off a TKO6 loss to Canelo Alvarez last September) and Porter (19-0 entering with 14 KOs; age 24; from Cleveland) fought in the welterweight class.

In the first round, Porter had luck with the right hand, though he was cut on his right eye midway through. He ate a couple rights himself. The round featured some nice back and forth action.

In the second, Gomez, the taller man, showed some nice timing and strength and aggressiveness. Would Porter be better served to move more, use hsi perhaps better footwork to get angles and steer clear of Gomez' launches?

In the third, Porter moved his feet and head more, and looked to be the busier man. In the fourth, Porter's jab found the mark. The ref told both men not to be chippy at 1:25. In the fifth, Porter marked up Gomez' face with a some combos. “Don't get into no wars, slow everything down,” Gomez' corner said after. In round six, a straight right and a right upper scored on Porter, sending notice that Gomez wasn't going to go into the gutter.

In the seventh, the men clashed heads and Gomez fell to the mat. Gomez missed and fell to the mat soon after. Still, he was winging shots. In the eighth, Porter traded maybe more than he should if he simply wanted to get that UD. In the ninth, Gomez went to the mat again, from a slip. He kept up the pace, though, kept grinding at Porter. A nasty cut on Porter's left eye had the doc looking at the gash, but he let it continue. The doc took an extra look before the tenth started, and let the fight continue. They butted heads again, for the umpteenth time, and traded some, till the final bell.

Readers, where do you see Porter going? How far? A pro since 2008, the man fought nine times in 2009, but lost some steam, and gloved up just once in 2011. Is he a future belt-holder? Can he correct flaws in his game? Weigh in!

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