Ken Porter denies Thurman’s Allegation that a Fight was Ever Offered

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Shawn Porter Keith Thurman Ken PorterOne of the best matchups that can be made in the welterweight division is between top 10 ranked fighters Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter. The fight was discussed amongst fans and media last year, but it was never expected to actually take place at any point in 2014.

To their credit, both fighters seem genuinely interested and willing to fight one another at some point in their careers. The problem with the fight at this point is it doesn’t make a lot of sense for either fighter, not at this juncture in both of their careers. It’s not that a win on either fighter’s resume against a top rated welterweight would do nothing, but a fight between Thurman and Porter could potentially be much bigger with more on the line if it is given time to grow.

Much like the highly talked about fight between Gennady Golovkin and Andre Ward, Thurman-Porter needs to marinate a little, although it is conceivably easier to make Thurman-Porter now than it would be Golovkin-Ward. Regardless, the fight doesn’t have to happen right away and they can both still take on top fighters in their division and make interesting matchups against other opponents while they build toward an eventual showdown with one another.

That doesn’t mean we’d all balk at Thurman-Porter if it happened now. The boxing world would be overjoyed to see the two men in the ring at any point, and according to Keith Thurman we almost did last year.

In a recent interview with Thaboxingvoice.com, published on TBV’s YouTube channel, Thurman spoke a little about Porter’s last performance against Erick Bone before mentioning the possibilities for a fight down the road. It is worth noting that Thurman has a friendly relationship with Team Porter.

“Great performance by Team Porter,” Thurman told Thaboxingvoice’s Sean Zittel.
“Porter was a dog man; he did his thing. He did what I expected him to do. I know their team very well, they train 110% for every single fight. Porter brought it, he put on a great performance and had a great stoppage.”

The interview got interesting when Sean asked Thurman about the possibility of a fight with Porter. Thurman revealed that there had been discussions last year and that Team Porter turned down the fight when it was offered to them.

“It’s been talked about; it was actually proposed once upon a time to their team, and they didn’t take it at that time. It was early last year. But besides that, if the fight happens the fight happens. I’m world champion right now, I feel great as champion and I’m willing to fight anybody that wants to come and get my belt. You know my moto: I got an ‘O’, and I’m not afraid to let it go if you can beat me beat me, let’s go.”

I believe Thurman when he says he’s willing to fight Porter, and I believe Porter when he says he’d fight Thurman.

However, Thurman’s truth is different from Team Porter’s and in a recent interview with Thaboxingvoice.com’s Nestor Gibbs with Ken Porter, father/trainer of Shawn Porter, he says that no such fight was ever offered.

“No, never. Absolutely not. We haven’t received a call to fight Keith Thurman if we receive a call to fight Keith Thurman we’re absolutely going to take it,” Ken told Gibbs.

Ken’s words were in direct response to Thurman’s allegations. The news of Thurman’s interview prompted Shawn himself to intervene in the interview out of the desire to clear up the situation.

“Me and Keith are going to fight; I just don’t know when,” Shawn Porter told Gibbs on the same phone conference. “I mean that. That’s a fight for my career. That’s not just a fight to say we fought. To beat Keith Thurman, one of the hottest up-and-coming welterweights right now, for me to fight him and beat him is something that the fans want and something that my career needs. If I don’t fight Keith before I’m done it’s like I didn’t fight everybody I was supposed to fight, that’s how I feel about it.”

I don’t think we have to worry about either Thurman or Porter ducking one another. They will fight one day, and we don’t need to put any pressure on them. It is a matter of timing and building the fight in a way that it reaches its full commercial value.

Both of these fighters are true warriors, and they are willing to fight the best. Fans might be a little anxious, but that is only because we have been exposed to previous champions over the years — a lot of them in the welterweight division — that have refused to fight the best or waited for fighters to decline before facing off.

Keith and Shawn are an old school breed of fighters, and they will meet one day. The only question that remains is who will win? Whoever comes out of that fight deserves the Mayweather treatment, but both fighters, regardless of the outcome, deserve credit for being unafraid to fight the best.