Las Vegas’ Shawn Porter eyeing Andre Berto for return bout

Shawn Porter has gone missing from the ring since he stole the hearts of boxing fans in Brooklyn, New York.

Porter won the crowd over at the Barclays Center during his narrow loss to Keith Thurman six months ago. But the Las Vegas resident still doesn’t have a fight scheduled since the memorable bout, while Thurman has moved on to face Danny Garcia in a welterweight unification matchup.

Kenny Porter, Shawn’s father and trainer, is optimistic his son will have a fight announced soon.

“Shawn is great,” the older Porter said. “He took just a little bit of time off for the holidays, I would say a week, but he came right back to the gym and doing everything we want him to do.

”His weight is good, he’s looking for a fight. We’re having trouble getting someone to accept a fight against Shawn. We’re hopeful something gets done soon.”

The Porters are eyeing a matchup with former welterweight champion Andre Berto, the last boxer to lose to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“Right now, we’re really pushing hard for Andre Berto,” Kenny Porter said. “He fought Floyd Mayweather Jr., and he went 12 rounds with him. He’s a high-level guy with a high-level name. We want that fight, and I was just told by a reporter that Andre wants to fight Shawn, too. So he’ll be receiving a call from us today (Thursday).”

The matchup makes sense for two known fighters under the same promotional company who fought only once in 2016. Berto’s last fight was a knockout victory over Victor Ortiz in April.

Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 knockouts) and Berto (31-4, 24 KOs) are promoted by Premier Boxing Champions, which has had trouble keeping its deep stable of boxers active.

“It’s hard waiting,” Kenny Porter said. “We thought we would be fighting before the end of 2016. Someone needs to sign that contract, and we’re not settling for a tuneup fight. We want a high-level guy, and we’re hoping it’s Andre Berto.”

The younger Porter called out Berto on Twitter, but Berto said the money needs to appease him before signing off on the challenge.

“Team Porter will be moving forward to make a fight with Andre Berto, this is a fight that I want. And it makes. Stay tuned,” Shawn Porter tweeted.

Kenny Porter said he prefers to have his son’s next fight be in Las Vegas and before Thurman and Garcia clash, but time is not on his side. Thurman and Garcia are scheduled to meet March 4 at an undetermined site.

“We want the winner of Thurman-Garcia,” Kenny Porter said. “Thurman didn’t want the rematch, but we’ll get him eventually. I think Thurman beats Garcia because Shawn put him in a life or death situation. He’s prepared. Garcia hasn’t had that type of competition.”

FRAMPTON TRAINING IN LAS VEGAS

The Porters have opened their gym to WBA featherweight champion Carl Frampton, who is training for a Jan. 28 rematch against Leo Santa Cruz at the MGM Grand.

Frampton moved his camp from Northern Ireland to the Porter Hy-Performance Gym this week.

“Carl is training over there now, and he’s looking great,” Kenny Porter said. “Very impressive guy. He had his people come check out the gym, and they liked what they saw. We only open up the gym for top champions.”

Light heavyweight champion Andre Ward had a few training sessions at Porter’s gym before facing Sergey Kovalev in November at T-Mobile Arena.

Contact Gilbert Manzano at gmanzano@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0492. Follow @gmanzano24 Twitter.