By Dan Ambrose: The potential fight between WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) and #4 WBA Shawn “Showtime” Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) will likely be moved to March 12, according to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times.
The reason why it will be moved from Mach 5th is because of UFC 197 taking place on that night with Conor McGregor vs. Rafael Dos Anjos and Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate. It would be too much competition for viewers if Thurman-Porter were to take place on March 5.
“Was told earlier today the Keith ThurmanJr @ShowtimeShawnP fight would likely be moved to March 12 due to the fact McGregor going March 5,” Pugmire said on his Twitter.
At this point it’s almost premature to see the Thurman-Porter fight taking place at all, period. Thurman seems to be taking it easy fight now ever since his 7th round TKO win over Luis Collazo last year in July 2015, and it’s not known how much interest he and his adviser Al Haymon has in making the Porter fight.
A fight like that would carry huge risks for Thurman, and right now he has things pretty easy with him facing guys like 34-year-old Collazo, 40-year-old Leonard Bundu and 32-year-old Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. While Thurman is technically a world champion at 147, he’s being matched more like he’s a contender or interim champion rather than the real thing.
It’s not known how long Haymon is going to continue to be careful with the match-making being done with Thurman, but he seems to be matching much in the same way he’s matching one of his other welterweight fighters Danny Garcia.
There’s a lot of matching against weaker and/or older fighters that aren’t much of a threat to beat him. Porter would be a threat for Thurman or Garcia, which is why I think there’s hesitation there. Thurman is making a good living right now boasting about his skills while facing older lions like Collazo, Guerrero and Bundu. Porter would be a big departure from the norm for Thurman, and that’s why we might not end up seeing the fight.
Thurman is going to need to start facing better opponents’ sooner or later if he wants to realize his dreams of being the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the welterweight division’s biggest star. Right now, it’s impossible to imagine Thurman ever turning into a PPV attraction in the sport; not with the way he’s being matched.
For Thurman to become a big pay-per-view star, Haymon will need to dramatically change the way he’s matching him up so that he’s fighting the better fighters like Porter, Errol Spence, Kell Brook and Danny Garcia.
Thurman will need to be able to fight some of Top Rank’s fighters if he wants to become a huge star, as there are guys like Terence Crawford and Tim Bradley that would be perfect for Thurman to fight to help increase his star power. Thurman isn’t going to go far in the sport with him being matched against guys like Bundu, Guerrero and Collazo instead of the quality fighters.
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