By Patrick McHugh: WBA World welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) will be dealing with a lot of pressure in his fight against Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) in their fight on June 25 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
This fight will be Thurman’s first since suffering a whiplash neck injury in a car accident earlier this year. Supposedly, the injury has healed, but we’re not going to find out until Thurman starts getting hit by shots from Porter. The question is will Thurman’s neck hold up with him getting hit by Porter over and over again. T
hurman won’t be able to run the entire time. He’s going to need to exchange with Porter and put his rehabilitated neck under a major test. If Thurman’s neck can’t handle the power shots from Porter, we could see very quick ending to the fight.
Thurman was supposed to fight Porter on March 12, but the car accident Thurman was involved in wiped out that fight date. There are some boxing fans that believe that Thurman wanted to get out of the fight because he wasn’t physically and/or mentally ready to take on a dangerous pressure fighter like Porter. I guess only Thurman knows for sure.
Thurman is a type of fighter that likes to punch his opponents and then retreat to the outside because he doesn’t handle pressure very well and his chin has shown signs of being vulnerable in the past in several of his fights. Thurman was also hurt to the body in his last fight against Luis Collazo last year in July.
“I don’t see myself worrying about it come the 25th,” said Thurman to RingTV.com. “The major difference is going to be I’m going to be getting hit with 8-ounce gloves, instead of 16-ounce gloves. But we believe that we’re well-prepared and we’ll be able to handle everything come this upcoming fight.”
Hopefully, we don’t see Thurman running all over the ring like he did in his fight against Leonard Bundu in 2014, and like he did in his sparring video with Porter in the past. Thurman is not the Floyd Mayweather Jr. type that will stay in the pocket and make guys miss by leaning away from shots.
Thurman’s primary mode of defense is to dark backwards or laterally after he throws a punch. He will not stay in the pocket because he doesn’t have the defensive skills to make guys miss when standing in place. He can only make his opponents miss when he moves away.
“We couldn’t spar early in this camp, just for the safety of my neck and not to jeopardize anything and just follow my doctor’s instructions,” said Thurman.
Thurman probably should have taken a lower level fringe contender for his next defense of his WBA title rather than facing a big puncher like Porter. If there’s any risk involved, it would be good to find out against a guy with less power than it would be to take on a dangerous guy that can hurt his neck the way that Porter can.