front vs rear ported speakers and punch

Did a search and could not find anything close, so I will ask away.

Can a front ported speakers ever keep up with the punch of rear ported speakers when they are close to the wall (10 to 15 inches)?

I have a pair of Tekton 6.5t larger monitors (not the largest I've seen) and they are rear ported. I have them 12" from the rear wall and bolted to good rigid metal stands (you can see system details and a picture of the setup in my system link). Overall, I think they do quite a good job for a $650 pair of monitors with a good amount of bass extension, PRAT and imaging.

Recently, I've been thinking I can do better for maybe 2x the amount of what I've spent. I tried some Tekton Mini Lores on rigid metal outriggers. These were more refined with a little more bass extension and have a front port. Overall, I liked the sound but I really missed the punch of my monitors. I sold the Mini Lores to a friend and went back to the 6.5t monitors.

Now I have a chance to pick up a very nice pair of PMC GB1i in cherry. I have heard similar / newer PMC speakers to the GB1i footprint. They are a transmission line with front port design. I liked how they imaged plus the extra bass extension was nice.

With that said, with the port being on the front, can I expect to keep my punchy characteristic I like or will I be coming close to the more refined sound of the Mini Lore? A couple of reviews mentioned that the GB1i needed to be played with a lot of wattage and with a little higher volume to create the PRAT and bass these are known to reproduce.