December 11, 2024 – In the main event of this Friday’s stacked BOXFEST XIII event from Red Owl Boxing’s “Owl’s Nest” in Houston, the multi-hyphenate world champion “Showtime” Shawn Porter will take the corner to serve as head trainer for rising middleweight Marquis Taylor (17-1-2, 3 KOs) as he takes on Ivan Pandzic (15-2-1, 9 KOs) in an ten-round fight.
Porter, who captured the welterweight world championship twice in his professional career, serves as the lead analyst for Red Owl Boxing’s BOXFEST series. Porter will focus his efforts on preparing Taylor on Friday night while former world title contender Paulie Malignaggi handles color commentary ringside with blow-by-blow announcer Corey Erdman for the final BOXFEST event of 2024.
Shawn Porter, 37, retired in 2021 and jumped into a role ringside as a color commentator where he has been lauded as one of the best fighter-turned-analysts in boxing today. Despite this success, the former welterweight champion knew that it was only a matter of time before he jumped into training in some capacity.
“I really don’t look at this as a transition,” said Porter, who hails from Akron, Ohio, but trains Taylor out of his gym in Las Vegas. “Coaching is something I always knew I would do, I just didn’t know who it would be with. I always had a spirit to teach and a spirit to coach.”
The new role as a head trainer has come natural to him over the past several months. Porter credits his father, who cornered him his whole career, as the reason why he was able to make the transition from fighter to trainer seamlessly.
“I really don’t think it’s been a transition,” Porter continued. “I’ve been emulating what my dad did for me, but with my voice. I am really looking forward to what me as a coach on fight night will be like. I know as a fighter it was a little bit of a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Something I learned from my dad is you have to treat a fighter and cater to their personality and their needs. I have to match Marquis Taylor’s energy. I don’t think it’s a transition so much as a learning process.”
Porter and Taylor met earlier this year but the former world champion was familiar with his new protegee’s work inside the ring. Porter initially wanted to have him on his podcast – The Porter Way Podcast – so they exchanged numbers. In July, Taylor reached out and asked Porter if he would train him for his next fight.
In August, when Porter was in Houston for Red Owl Boxing, the two linked up in the gym and the pair knew they had a connection. Following a few months of long-distance training, Taylor has been training full time under Porter’s tutelage in Las Vegas for more than a month.
In the lead up to this main event opportunity, the pair was met with adversity when Taylor’s original opponent – undefeated Russian Olympian Petr Khamukov – pulled out of the fight due to a broken rib. Pandzic, 33, was originally slated to fight on the undercard and jumped at the chance to take on the Houston native in his hometown.
Porter, who fought 36 times during his 14-year professional career, was able to help guide Taylor through this moment. Porter likened Taylor’s mindset to his own and credits his fighter for remaining focused while dealing with opponent changes.
“Something I love about Marquis is that we have the same mindset and are very similar in a lot of ways,” said Porter. “When we were going through this opponent change, Marquis said, ‘Man I’ve been through this before. I fought in tournaments where you didn’t know who you were fighting. I’m gonna treat it like that.’ For me, I have to do two things, handle it as a coach and as a fighter. Number one thing for me was to protect Marquis and not let him get frustrated that the opponent changed. Turns out, when we got Pandzic, he fights a lot like the guys we had Marquis spar with. We had guys who were tall and rangy. This training camp was picture perfect for what we are headed up against.”
In addition to preparing for this Friday’s main event matchup, Porter is lobbying for Taylor outside of the ring. On Wednesday, Porter attended the annual WBC Convention in Hamburg, Germany and asked for Taylor to be ranked in the middleweight division’s Top 15. The WBC agreed to rank Taylor #19 ahead of this Friday’s fight and will move him up the rankings should he emerge victorious in the BOXFEST XIII main event.
The 13th edition of Red Owl Boxing’s BOXFEST will return this Friday with a stacked five-fight card which will stream live on DAZN globally in more than 200 territories and regions from the state-of-the-art “Owl’s Nest” in Houston. The action begins around the world at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT.
For more information on Red Owl Boxing and to purchase tickets, visit www.redowlboxing.com. Fans can follow Red Owl Boxing on X, Instagram and YouTube.
BOXFEST XIII Main Card on DAZN at 9 pm ET/8pm CT
Marquis Taylor (17-1-2, 3 KOs) vs. Ivan Pandzic (15-2-1, 9 KOs)
10-Round Main Event – 156.5 lbs.
Oscar Alan Perez (11-0-2, 7 KOs) vs. Cristian Medina Garcia (8-1-1, 5 KOs)
8-Round Co-Main Event – 135 lbs.
Bre’yon Gorham (17-0, 14 KOs) vs. Alan Ayala (11-4, 7 KOs)
8-Round Fight – 141 lbs.
Giovanni Marquez (11-0, 6 KOs) vs. Cristian Dominguez (13-6, 6 KOs)
8-Round Fight – 143 lbs.
Troy Nash, Jr. (2-0) vs. David De Leon (Pro Debut)
4-Round Fight – 127 lbs.
ABOUT RED OWL BOXING
Red Owl Boxing is a media company that specializes in delivering world-class events from its state-of-the-art sports facilities in the United States and Canada. Red Owl Boxing aims to bring structure to boxing’s middle class by highlighting tomorrow’s future stars and contenders in action-packed fights. Red Owl Boxing launched in 2021 by Canada-based entrepreneur Gabriel Fanous who owns and operates cutting-edge event spaces in Houston, Texas, and Brampton, Ontario, both of which provide premier event experiences and hospitality packages.
