(Photo credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME) By Allan Fox: WBA World welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) and challenger “Showtime” Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) both made weight on Friday afternoon for their fight on Premier Boxing Champions on CBS on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
A very thin looking Thurman weighed in at 146 pounds. For his part, Porter weighed in right at the welterweight limit at 147lbs. Porter looked pretty thin too. You can tell that the two fighters will be huge by tomorrow night after they rehydrate because both appeared to be rail thin and not healthy looking.
During the faceoff, Thurman stared hard into Porter’s eyes while leaning forward into Porter’s personal space. After the faceoff, Thurman made slashing gestures across his neck and then put his hands to his face in a display that he’ll be going to sleep while pointing at the 28-year-old Porter.
Thurman is considered to be the favorite in this fight by the bettors. However, this is still a fight that could very well go Porter’s way if he can stay on top of Thurman and not let him using his hit and run style of fighting. Thurman is going to want to land his shots and get away all night long. Thurman doesn’t have the best chin, so there’s little chance he’ll be sticking around after he delivers his shots.
Thurman is like a B-52 bomber. He delivers the bombs and then gets away quickly before he gets shot down. If Thurman stands in the pocket all night long, he’ll likely get taken out if he can’t get to Porter first. Porter has the better chin of the two, and would likely score a knockout at some point in the fight. Thurman won’t let that happen though, as he’s going to make sure he gets away quickly after he throws one or two shots.
This fight should be interesting to watch unless Thurman makes it a bad one by moving too much. It’s really up to Thurman whether the fight will be an exciting one or not, because he can cause it to be a stinker if he chooses to try and evade Porter for 12 rounds rather than standing and fighting him.
Thurman has been saying that he sees the winner of this fight as being the No.1 guy in the welterweight division. I think it’s premature for this fight to be the top guy, because there are too many other quality fighters that the winner of this fight will need to face and beat before a No.1 fighter can be chosen.
This fight is my career on the line,” said Thurman to Fighthype.com. “This fight is going to catapult me up or it’s going to bring me down. Me and my team believe I have the potential to be the best welterweight that the world has to offer today. Saturday is an opportunity to show you exactly why we look forward to that. If you know him ouyt, people are going to love you. That’s why we’re going for the knockout victory. I want to elevate myself to that next level. I’ve got tons of confidence fighting Mayweather because he’s not going to knock me out. That’s not what he does. I believe I can put on a better performance than Canelo, a better performance than Cotto, a better performance than Chop Chop Corley. I do believe I would be the toughest challenge he would have fought to date, and with that one punch, he may get it. There’s a reason why he’s a defensive fighters. He’s not trying to get hit. We saw what happened when Mosley hit him. The easiest way to beat the best fighter in the world is also the hardest way is by the KO victory,” said Thurman.
Thurman shouldn’t worry about fighting Mayweather, because that’s not going to happen. if Mayweather comes back, he won’t be fighting Thurman. He’ll be fighting a popular fighter that brings in the ratings. Thurman is lacking in that department.
In the co-feature bout, undefeated #9 IBF, #10 WBA junior middleweight contender Jarrett Hurd (17-0, 11 KOs) weighed in at 153 ¾ pounds for his scheduled 10 round fight against #10 WBC Oscar Molina (13-0-1, 10 KOs). Molina weighed in at 154 ¾ Pounds. These are two decent contenders, but far from being the best in the division. The fight will be good clean entertainment, but the winner of the fight still won’t be the best. They’ll just be another one of the many contenders in the division with decent but not great talent.
This fight could wind up being the best fight on the card because both guys will be looking to punch. The main event between Thurman and Porter could wind up being a game of cat and mouse with Porter chasing Thurman around the ring all night long looking to punch his lights out.
Other weights on the card:
David Benavidez – 168 ½ Pounds vs. Francy Ntetu – 170 Pounds
Adam Kownacki – 264 ¼ Pounds vs. Jesse Barboza – 242 ¾ Pounds
