By Allan Fox: Former IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter is hoping that the winner of his fight this Saturday night against WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman will lead to Floyd Mayweather Jr. coming out of retirement to fight one of them. Thurman and Porter will be fighting at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Their fight will be televised on CBS. A lot of casual boxing fans are expected to see the fight, and for many of them, it will be the first time they’ve seen them. It’s going to be a great opportunity for both fighters to display their talent to many new fans of the sport.
Hopefully, they put on a great performance and don’t wind up disappointing like we saw in the highly hyped Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight in 2015. Porter has a crowd-pleasing fighting style in all his fights. He’s not someone that you’ve got to encourage to fight in an exciting manner. Thurman is a different story. He moves too much for a fighter with his kind of punching power.
The fight could up to be a boring affair if Thurman moves as much as he did in his win over Leonard Bundu in 2014. A lot of it was needless movement that seemed to be purposeless and the crowd ended up booing from the midpoint of the fight until the end.
“I feel like if Floyd Mayweather comes back, he should fight the winner of this matchup. I believe that will be me,” said Porter.
For Mayweather to come back and fight the winner, the Thurman-Porter winner will need to put on a great performance. The fight will also need to bring in huge ratings on CBS. Mayweather won’t be interested in fighting the winner of this fight if the ratings end up being anemic like the recent clash between Andrzej Fonfara and Joe Smith Jr.
At this point, it remains to be seen whether the casual fans will be interested in watching the Thurman vs. Porter fight on Saturday night in high numbers, because these guys are not huge stars like Mayweather and Pacquiao were. Those fighters put on great performances throughout their careers to build up their large fan base.
Thurman is a better talker than he is a fighter in my view. His fights are not always exciting, and he doesn’t dominate the way that Mayweather and Pacquiao did. Thurman gets hurt frequently in his fights, and he then starts running and the fight becomes boring to watch. Porter tends to maul a lot on the inside, and that can be boring when he starts to wrestle with his opponents.
Porter has looked a lot better recently in his fights against Adrien Broner and Erick Bone. However, it’s been a year since Porter last fought, so he’s not been active enough to keep the fans interested in him. At this point in Porter’s career, he needs to be fighting three to four times per year so that he can build a fan base.
Fighting once a year is something that established fighters like Mayweather was able to do. You can’t do that when you’re someone like Porter if you want to build a large fan base.
“I’m looking forward to this kind of moment to shine. That’s how you gain notoriety and become bigger. There’s no pressure, just excitement,” said Porter. “I’m not going to go in there looking for a knockout and throw my hands wildly. I’m going to keep up the pace that I normally keep up. I’m a great boxer. People consider me a boxer, but I may surprise you.”
Porter should put more of his energy into winning a decision by throwing a lot of punches rather than looking for a knockout. Thurman doesn’t have a great chin, and he’ll likely fall apart just getting hit by Porter’s normal shots than if he loads up on every shot. Porter doesn’t need to look for a knockout to stop Thurman. Just landing his regular shots will do the job if he can land enough for them.
That’s big question. Can Porter land enough of his shots to KO Thurman? It won’t be easy if Thurman is on his bike moving laterally around the ring trying to keep from getting hit all night long. Thurman likes to move in and throw one or two punches and then move away quickly. He wants to be followed so he can land a left hook while he’s retreading. However, where Thurman is vulnerable is when you time him for when he comes forward.
He’ll use several feints before he does throw his shots, but he’s very vulnerable when he’s briefly in the pocket. He can be hit at that time because his mind is on his offense more so than in his defense at that moment. Once Thurman lands, he wants to get out so he doesn’t get hit. That’s when you’ll see him run around the ring.