The boxing world is still waiting on an official announcement regarding a highly anticipated welterweight fight between Keith “One Time” Thurman (26-0, 22KOs), who is still listed as the WBA “regular” World Champion, and former world champion “Showtime” Shawn Porter (26-1-1). This fight has been brewing for months and initially it was thought that this bout would take place on December 12. However, the date has since been pushed back into next year but all indications are that the fight between Thurman and Porter will take place for
However, the date has since been pushed back into next year, but all indications are that the fight between Thurman and Porter will take place for some point in late February 2016 with the MGM Grand being mentioned as a possible venue.
ThaBoxingVoice’s own Fernando Pimentel recently got to speak with Ken Porter, the trainer and father of Shawn, and Ken gave his theory as to why this fight was pushed back into early next year.
“We tried to close the year with Keith Thurman December 12 so we could get fighter of the year and they sabotaged that to make sure we couldn’t get the fight and they gave him (Thurman) fighter of the year. That’s some bullshit,” said Ken Porter.
Keith Thurman was named Premiere Boxing Champions “Fighter of the Year” this past Saturday as he was voted on by PBC’s TV and cable partners (CBS, ESPN, NBC, Spike, FS1, and Bounce) with his two wins this year over former world champions Robert Guerrero and Luis Collazo, respectively.
Ken’s reasoning for why this fight was pushed back may or may not be true, but the fact is that both him and Shawn have been chasing Keith for a fight for months, making appearances at PBC events and asking the boxing media of Thurman’s whereabouts. It has made boxing fans wonder if this fight will actually take place considering that Thurman has said very little about a potential fight with Shawn on his end.
Thurman, since his win over Collazo this past July, has been unusually quiet. There was a time when Keith was very accessible to the boxing media, constantly giving interviews, making appearances, and willing to give his thoughts on the boxing world and potential matchups involving him in the future.
That has obviously changed in the past few months and there’s been much speculation about why a Thurman vs Porter fight has been pushed back to February, from Thurman being unhappy with the money offered to fight Shawn, to perhaps Keith looking to take the rest of the year off to simply rest some lingering injuries. Prior to Thurman’s appearance on Saturday night’s NBCSN “Year in Review” show where he commented on winning PBC’s Fighter of the Year award, much of the boxing world was asking ‘where is Keith Thurman?’
Ken Porter feels the reason why Keith hasn’t been saying much these days is because he thinks Thurman wants no part of his son, which is why this fight has been taking so long to materialize.
“He’s very quiet about it,” Ken Porter said. “Congratulations to Keith winning that Fighter of the Year Award last night, I watched it, he spoke very well. They asked him about the welterweight division and he spoke on some of the other fighters and then he did finally get around to mentioning Shawn sort of like an afterthought.
“I’m thinking to myself, ok this is the guy you want but you’re not mentioning him first or even second. But I don’t think he’s in the hurry to take this fight.
“Obviously, he’s not in a hurry because it’s been three or fourth months since we been talking about this fight and nothing has come out on his end that lets us know it’s getting ready to happen, but we’re being reassured that it is going to happen. Yeah, he’s quiet, he’s not making any noise, but the quiet ones are the ones you need to watch out for.”
Based on the character Thurman has showed inside and outside the ring there shouldn’t be any doubts that he lacks the confidence to defeat Shawn Porter. Thurman has stated numerous times in the past that he’s not afraid to fight anybody and that he’s a fighter with a 0 “that’s not afraid to let it go.”
An announcement is expected shortly and once the fight gets made Ken Porter has the utmost confidence that his son Shawn Porter will be the winner and that includes Keith Thurman himself.
“Whoever wins this fight takes over the division and I’m 100% percent certain is going to be Shawn,” he said. “Keith is 100% certain is going to be Shawn too. That’s a problem for Keith right now; he’s really feeling he can’t beat this kid and if he feels he can’t beat us in his mind then we’ll show him on fight night that all of his worse thoughts and nightmares are coming true tonight, yup absolutely.”
