With their Premier Boxing Champions bout against each other being on the eve of Father’s Day, boxers Adrien Broner and Shawn Porter took the time to discuss their relationships with their dads.
Broner discussed how his father impacted his love of boxing. “My dad ‘Pops’ was the first person to take me to the boxing gym and that is where we met Coach Mike [Stafford]. My dad just knew that he wanted me to box and he took me to the right place,” he said.
He went on to explain his dad’s nickname: “Everyone calls my dad ‘Pops’ because he’s like a dad to everyone around me – my friends, fighters in the gym…everyone. He’s always been there 100 percent of the time.”
“The Problem” also discussed how both he and his father can be a little different, sharing, “Me and my dad are both a little crazy. We are similar people. We are both cut from a different cloth, we like to have fun and work hard. We mesh.”
Broner’s father still contributes to Broner’s in-ring performances as well. “My dad usually comes to camp the last two weeks, so he is at the gym everyday leading up to the fights. When he’s not with me in the gym, he is working on cars as a mechanic in Cincinnati,” he said.
“I love being with my kids. I like to do fun things with them and give them more than I had as a kid. I love when they come to the gym and come to my fights,” he said on being a father himself. “when my youngest Adrieon was born, I was there every step of the way and now this Father’s Day is going to be even better when I win.”
If you know anything about Shawn Porter, you know his father, Ken Porter, is his manager, trainer, and is almost always close to the side of his son. Porter said of his father, “My dad has always been there from sports to school and has helped me through all of it. He is an anomaly because he was always there as a single father. You don’t really find that too much in the African American community – a single dad that wants to be there for his children the way my dad has been there for me and my brother.”
Porter discussed the upcoming celebratory day for dads, saying, “Every day is kind of like Father’s Day for us. I want to make this one very memorable and it is the first of many to come. But obviously Sunday will be much better if I win… I feel like I make his day every day. It’s him and I. It’s what we do. You have your good days and bad days. For me being a son and an athlete, it makes me want to perform on a different level.”
Adrien Broner and Shawn Porter will battle tonight on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC at 8pm. Who will have the more enjoyable Father’s Day? The man who has his hand raised on tonight’s #PBConNBC card tonight, without a doubt.
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