Shawn Porter beats Andre Berto by TKO

Shawn Porter scored a TKO of Andre Berto in the main event of Saturday’s Showtime boxing card. Porter dominated the fight with extreme pressure, not letting Berto work his game and ultimately scoring multiple knockdowns en route to a TKO in the ninth round.

The fight was billed as a 12-round WBC welterweight title eliminator, and Porter will have his rematch with Keith Thurman after his impressive win over Berto.

Early in the fight, Berto looked good, landing from range and generally keeping a hesitant Porter from working his game. But then Porter turned up the aggression and started bullying Berto big time into the ropes. Porter began overwhelming Berto, getting him into the ropes and working strong uppercuts and big body shots.

Both fighters ended up with cuts over their eyes after a couple rounds, and by the seventh round both fighters were getting looked at by the doctors extensively. Berto was landing some strong shots, but Porto consistently worked him into a dirty boxing fight that he was better-equipped to win.

In the co-feature, Jermell Charlo defended his WBC junior middleweight title against Charles Hatley in a 12-round fight. But they did not go all 12 rounds, with Charlo clearly dominating the first five rounds on the back of an impressive jab clinic.

Charlo consistently landed hard right straights setup by quick left jabs, and scored a knockout of Hatley in the third round. He had a near knockdown in the second round when Hatley stumbled back into the ropes.

In the sixth round, both fighters elected to swing for the fences and it ended as many would expect, with Charlo slipping punches in the pocket and landing a massive right hand to put Hatley down. It was a clean knockout, the 14th of Charlo’s career and the 29th win in his 29th match. Hatley drops to 26-2-1 for his career.

Below is the full play-by-play from both of the big matches on the night, and below that is a list of results for Saturday’s card.

Round 1: Porter tries to land a left jab from range but eats a right hand from Berto. There is a lot of tying up and getting arms tied up and dirty boxing in the early-goings. Porter lands a good body shot, but Berto lands one himself. Berto lands a huge right hand with under a minute to go but Porter eats it and stays stable. Porter just misses a deadly right hand that Berto sweeps away from and the round comes to a close. It was a close one, but probably Berto’s round.

Round 2: Porter lands some nice, hard body shots before the two clinch in the first minute of the round. He’s doing a good job of getting out of range after throwing combinations, something that he’s struggled with in recent fights. Berto has some swelling above the right eye. These two continue to clinch and tie up and prompt referee intervention more and more. Porter gets Berto against the ropes and into a dirty boxing clinch. The two are firing off big shot after big shot, with Porter landing huge body shots. This clinch is going for a solid 30-40 seconds, with Berto defending well but unable to fire off himself from the position. Porter has a cut opened up from an accidental headbutt. Porter throws some body shots and slips a right jab in there that gets Berto down on the mat! It’s very, very quick and brief, but it’s a knockdown and a definite Porter round.

Round 3: Berto comes out in this round aggressive, and it seems to be working. He’s backing Porter up and not letting him get a rhythm, which is key to avoid the kind of thing that happened in the second round. Berto slips a Porter hook and lands a huge right hand that stumbles Porter. But Porter explodes in a fury and lands some massive shots on Berto that get him back up against the ropes again. Porter is pressuring and landing shot after shot on Berto against the ropes. He lands a huge right uppercut and the referee finally separates them when the clinch gets a little too huggy. With 30 seconds to go Berto misses a right hook and ends up against the ropes again with Porter landing a right uppercut. Berto gets warned for a rabbit punch, though it’s worth noting Porter threw one or two of them earlier in the round as well and it wasn’t noticed by the referee.

Round 4: Porter lands a nice left jab to start the round. Berto can’t seem to find his range and when he starts to, Porter gets so in his face he can’t land clean. Porter lands a big one-two and Berto ties up with him. Porter again gets Berto against the ropes and lands a nice uppercut. Berto does land a nice right hand to the temple this time, but they are separated after another accidental headbutt. Going into the round’s final minute, they have yet another accidental headbutt. Berto has some blood coming from under his left eye and the referee has it looked at by the doctor. Ten seconds to go and Berto lands some good shots but Porter is still mostly bullying him.

Round 5: Porter lands a huge body shot as both fighters miss winging hooks and once again, Berto ends up against the ropes with Porter working his dirty boxing game. The referee is getting involved quite a lot to separate these exchanges. The referee brings the doctor in again to look at Berto’s cut on his right eye. It’s a low-tempo round overall and neither fighter scored big points.

Round 6: Porter is pretty clearly ahead on the cards at this point. Berto isn’t getting dominated by any stretch, but Porter is working his game. Berto clips Porter with a big, big left just as I type that, but Porter gets out of dodge and resets himself. Berto lands a nice uppercut and Porter lands a glancing blow on the side of the head that looks like a knockdown at first, but it looks more like Berto slips and it’s not counted as a knockdown. Berto keeps good movement but consistently ends up against the ropes. It’s a more active round for Berto, he’s still showing life, but he’s not landing anything on offense.

Round 7: Berto lands a nice uppercut and nice left jab as Porter tries to move in and get back into a clinch position. Porter is breathing big through his mouth, but he’s still moving well. He’s just not bullying Berto as well as he was previously. Porter lands two stiff jabs from range with 30 seconds to go. Porter lands a beautiful jab himself with under 10 seconds go to, and Berto never saw it coming. That was possibly closest round of the match.

Round 8: Porter, perhaps sensing Berto’s resurgence from the last round, comes out throwing nasty. He’s throwing massive shots and gets Porter up against the ropes again. Unlike previous exchanges where Berto was fighting back big time, this time it’s all Porter. He lands several body shots, several head shots, several hooks. They clinch and get separated, but every time Porter gets him right back up against the ropes.

Round 9: Porter slips a shot in that stumbles Berto into the ropes and he briefly goes down. They count it as a knockdown early in the round because of the ropes. Berto now looks a little overwhelmed and Porter smells blood. Berto again pressures and gets in his face, and another big right hand stumbles Berto back into the ropes. It’s enough to be considered another knockdown and the referee calls it in Porter’s favor.

Round 1: Both fighters are already showing their length and range, exchanging three-punch combos from outside the pocket, but both also defend well. They’re feeling each other out here, and it’s Charlo who lands the first significant shots with some nice body shots with under a minute to go. Hatley lands a couple body shots of his own and a quiet round comes to an end.

Round 2: Charlo comes out aggressive, firing off multiple combos from range before dropping back out to avoid Hatley’s retaliation. Charlo sneaks two counter left hands in while Hatley is firing back and they land well. Charlo lands a good one-two combo. Hatley lands a right hook that catches Charlo off balance. Hatley is the aggressor in this round but Charlo is defending well, as expected. Charlos lands a beautiful right hand that stumbles Hatley and backs up him up with under 10 seconds to go, and it’s the most damaging blow of the fight thus far.

Round 3: It’s possible Charlo earned a knockdown for the shot that staggered Hatley into the ropes near the end of the round. Hatley comes back out aggressive and after some more shots from range, Charlo again lands right on the button with a left hand and this time, there are no ropes to keep Hatley up. He ends up on the mat with a big knockdown on the cards. Charlo now is pushing forward with Hatley back on his feet. Hatley escapes the round without further damage.

Round 4: Hatley can’t handle Charlo’s right hand, especially when it’s preceded with a quick left jab. Charlo continues pushing him back throughout the round. Hatley is trying to circle around Charlo to mitigate damage from straights and lands a nice left hook to Charlo’s temple about mid-way through the round. But it is a quiet round overall that ends with a flurry from Charlo.

Round 5: Charlo used the left to setup combos in earlier rounds, but he’s committing to it now and Hatley is having trouble adjusting to it. Charlo has thrown nearly 100 jabs over the first five rounds of the fight thus far. Neither fighter is looking tired and Hatley is still throwing. But Charlo continues to counter Hatley well, landing a nice left hook with half a minute remaining. Charlo lands an uppercut that backs Hatley up into the ropes. Hatley came in with a hard overhand that looked dangerous, but Charlo just sweeps out of the way as the round comes to an end, another round in his favor.

Round 6: Charlo turned it up at the start of this round and apparently decided he was done with the one-to-two punch combos. He swarms Hatley and starts picking him apart, connecting with hook after hook. Hatley is backing up and has nothing to offer. Charlo looks like he could have decided to finish this at any point he wanted, and he does it here, in the sixth round, sending Hatley to the ground and into unconsciousness for the victory. Charlo put Hatley down with a clean right hand that put Hatley right out. Hatley was throwing hard as well, trying to defend and win a shootout, but it wasn’t even close.

Shawn Porter def. Andre Berto via TKO at 1:31 of Round 9
Jermell Charlo (29-0) def. Charles Hatley (26-2-1) via KO at 0:32 of Round 6