Shawn Porter’s dad says Keith Thurman hasn’t responded to calls

By Boxing News - 08/24/2015 - Comments

thurman3455By Dan Ambrose: Ken Porter, the trainer/father for former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs), says he’s very interested in setting up a fight between his son Shawn and WBA “regular” welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) for a fight before the end of the year.

Thurman had recently mentioned Porter as one of the fighters that he’s interested in facing this year. Unfortunately, Ken Porter says he’s been unable to get in contact with Thurman when he’s attempted to call him.

It’s unclear why Ken isn’t getting any response from the 26-year-old Thurman, but you have to wonder whether Thurman is interested in facing Porter.

“Keith Thurman said he wanted to have a big fight before the year was over, so I consider him and Shawn to be a big fight,” Ken said via 5 Star Boxing via thaboxingvoice.com. “So, I made the call on that, but I have not gotten any response?”

It’s hard to say why Thurman isn’t responding to the calls from Ken. You’d hate to see it as a situation where Thurman is ducking the Porter fight, but you have to suspect that it could possibly be a reason. If you look at the guys that Thurman has been facing since he turned pro, he’s not fought anyone even remotely as talented as Shawn Porter.

We saw Thurman recently back-peddling all night long in his recent fights against Luis Collazo and Leonard Bundu. Collazo had Thurman badly hurt from a body shot at one point in the fight, and Thurman showed no desire to stand in the pocket against him. Thurman ran from Bundu and Collazo.

Even in Thurman’s fight against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, Thurman gave up on the idea of punching with him after the 4th round, and he spent the rest of the fight moving around the ring. Thurman had said before the fight that he would stand in the pocket and slug with Guerrero for the first six rounds, but I guess he gave up on that idea when he started taking some heavy shots from Guerrero.

When you think about it, Porter is a very bad match-up for a fighter like Thurman, because he’s good at cutting off the ring against runners like Thurman. Porter is a much better inside fighter than Thurman, and it could turn out to be a real massacre if this fight were to get made.

Thurman’s inside fighting skills are about as good as Paulie Malignaggi’s in my view, and Porter would be on top of Thurman all night long, not letting him run around the ring and pot shot like he normally does. If Porter is always on top of Thurman in the fight and fails to give him room to pot shot and throw his left hook, Thurman will take a beating and likely get knocked out.

There are three or four fighters in the welterweight division that are very bad match-ups for Thurman, and one of those guys is Shawn Porter. The others are Errol Spence Jr., Floyd Mayweather Jr. Manny Pacquiao.

I can’t see Thurman beating any of those fighters because they’re too skilled, and superior to Thurman in areas where he has little talent. Porter would make a mess of Thurman on the inside, and not let him run around the ring throwing left hooks and pot shotting all night long.

When you hear about Ken Porter not getting any response from Thurman when trying to contact him, it gives me the impression that it’s a red flag message coming from Thurman that he’s not interested in facing Shawn Porter. We already heard from Thurman that he’s not interested in facing Errol Spence. Could it be that Porter is another fighter that Thurman’s not interested in fighting too?



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