Porter unsure if Thurman will face him

By Boxing News - 10/20/2015 - Comments

porter44By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) has been waiting for ages for WBA “regular” welterweight champion Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) to agree to the fight in order for them to face each other on December 5th.

Porter is eager to get the 26-year-old Thurman in the ring because he sees vulnerability there that he feels he can expose in front of the world on Showtime to take his title. It’s unclear why Thurman is taking his time to take the fight, but Porter says if he doesn’t agree to the fight, then he’ll move on and face someone else.

For Thurman, he’s not looked good in his last three fights, and there could be some fear involved for him. Thurman was badly hurt in his last fight against high level journeyman Luis Collazo last July. Thurman was able to stop Collazo in the 7th, but not before getting hurt with a body shot.

“If somehow [Thurman] says he doesn’t want to fight this year then we’ll look for another opponent but it’s Keith in December for me. Then I look at making 2016 better than 2015,” Porter said via thaboxingvoice.

Future events cast their shadows before. We know that Thurman had an opportunity to face the dangerous unbeaten welterweight contender Errol Spence, but he chose not to take the fight even though it would have given him a chance at winning a world title. Some boxing fans think that Thurman chose not to face Spence because he’s afraid of him.

Indeed, they believe that Thurman’s reluctance to face Spence was because of him being afraid of suffering a bad knockout loss. I guess only Thurman knows for sure why he turned the fight down with Spence.

We know that Floyd Mayweather Jr offered the Spence fight to Thurman and said he would vacate one of his two welterweight titles for Spence and Thurman to fight over it. But instead of Thurman agreeing to take the fight, he opted to go the easy route by facing the 34-year-old Collazo.

“For me Keith Thurman is the goal. I look at him as being the biggest, the hardest, toughest, best fight out there for me; and that being said, that’s what I want,” Porter said.

Porter defeated Adrien Broner last June by a 12 round unanimous decision. It was a one-sided fight with Broner holding and running the entire fight. Porter looked great. Last year, Porter lost his IBF title to Kell Brook, when he was unable to figure out how to defeat his punch and hold technique. Porter worked on how to defeat fighters that hold a lot after that fight, and he used what he learned in his win over Broner.



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