By Ryan Maquiñana

Shawn Porter’s statement Saturday night in Washington, D.C., was as emphatic as it was surprising.

The 26-year-old welterweight world titleholder from Akron, Ohio, stopped Paulie Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs) in the fourth round, and a clash that many pegged would be competitive was definitively one-sided.

Porter (24-0-1, 15 KOs), who according to Showtime landed 50 percent of his power shots against a foe renowned for his defense, described how he was able to accomplish the feat in a postfight interview with Jim Gray.

“They kept asking me if I use my jab enough. They think I should use it more,” Porter said. “… I came back to the corner after maybe the first round.

“My dad said to use that jab. Actually, the round I knocked him out in was the round that we wanted to. The objective was to use the jab to get to the body.”

Porter went over how he floored Malignaggi in the opening seconds of the fourth stanza with a rocket of a right hand.

“The first knockdown, we knew this right hand right here was going to come all night,” he said. “It was just a matter of lining him up. I caught him in the back of the ear. Good shot. He was off-balance. He got up right after that shot, so I knew it wasn’t over.”

The winner then transitioned to the final sequence that sent Malignaggi into the ropes and caused the stoppage.

“The big right hand. … I’m just trying to get space, and I knew the right hand was going to be there all night, so we kept throwing it,” Porter said. “My dad told me to go to the body, but hey, I felt it.”

Speaking of his father, Porter lauded the man who has been the architect of his son’s career since the amateurs.

“I’m going to enjoy this. I’m going to let my team handle it. My dad, my manager, my coach Kenny Porter, has done a fantastic job with me -- has done a fantastic job to this point.”

With Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer standing behind him, Porter was asked who he would want to face next. In this scribe’s opinion, the win makes the Ohioan an intriguing option down the line for one Floyd Mayweather, who is running out of foes within the pool of available opponents due to the networks and promoters’ current “Cold War.”

“I’m sure they’ll all communicate,” Porter said of his father and Golden Boy. “They’ll come up with the next game plan, and we’ll go tackle it.”

Ryan Maquiñana was the boxing producer for NBCOlympics.com during London 2012 and writes a boxing column for CSNBayArea.com.  He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine's Ratings Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at Norcalboxing.com or follow him on Twitter@RMaq28.