By Dan Ambrose: WBA World welterweight champion Danny “One Time” Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) said last night that he was willing to give “Showtime” Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 KOs) a rematch if he wanted one. However, it now looks like Thurman has changed his mind about wanting to fight Porter a second time, because he’s now targeting WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) for a unification fight.
Thurman, 27, wants the fight against Garcia, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to get it. Despite the fact that Garcia and Thurman are both managed by Al Haymon, it doesn’t make sense for Haymon to make that fight.
By having two champions at 147 rather than just one, you would have to believe that it’s better for him the way it is now. If one of those two fighters are beaten, then that means the loser won’t be as popular as they are today.
Thurman defeated Porter by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night by the scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113 on Premier Boxing Champions on CBS. There were some boxing fans that had the Thurman-Porter fight scored as a draw. I personally scored it a draw, as did WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
“I want Danny Garcia. I want more than one belt,” said Thurman at last Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “If I have to take this mandatory [against David Avanesyan], then I have to take this mandatory. Sometimes a fighter doesn’t get what he wants, but in my heart, I want the opportunity to fight Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia. If you’re a daddy’s boy, come see me, boy. Let’s go, Danny. Sign the contract, boy. Come on, man. Stop playing. Let’s do this. I want another belt, baby.”
Thurman might need to fight interim WBA welterweight champ David Avanesyan (22-1, 11 KOs) next if the World Boxing Association orders the fight. That would likely be a very easy fight for Thurman because Avanesyan did not look good recently in struggling to beat 44-year-old Shane Mosley last May. That was not a good performance from Avanesyan, who looked just a little bit better than Mosley.
“I thought it was a draw, but it was a good fight overall anyway,” said Wilder to Fighthub.com. “I’m looking to fight him [Joshua]. I’m going to knock him out,” said Wilder.
Thurman vs. Porter will obviously take place at some point in the future, but probably not this year. Even if Thurman doesn’t face Avanesyan next, I don’t think he’ll wind up fighting Porter again, because he almost lost that fight and he took a lot of punishment. If Haymon keeps throwing Thurman in with Porter, he might get worn down quickly and end up having a shorter career. Besides that, Thurman might lose, and that would take away any chance of him becoming the next No.1 fighter in the 147lb division.
Thurman said before the Porter fight last night that the winner of that contest would be seen as the top dog in the division. Well, it’s clear that Thurman was getting ahead of himself because he still needs to fight and beat the likes of Kell Brook, Errol Spence, Tim Bradley, Jessie Vargas, and Garcia before he can make that claim that he’s the top dog.
The fights against Vargas and Bradley will likely never happen because they’re both with Top Rank, and it’s not realistic that their promoter Bob Arum would match either of them against Thurman. They have a good situation with the WBO in fighting it out back and forth for that belt. But the guys that Thurman can fight is Brook and Spence in the short term, especially Spence.
The way that the 5’7” was able to use his size to get the better of Porter at times last night wouldn’t be able to happen if he fought the 5’9 ½” Spence, who is only three inches taller than him with a three-inch reach advantage, and arguably better punching power. Thurman would need to run from Spence all night long because there’s no way he could stand his ground the way he was doing at times against Porter. Spence would blow through Thurman like he wasn’t even there if he tried to stand and fight him. Spence also wouldn’t allow himself to be clinched constantly the way that Thurman was doing against Porter last night. Spence would hammer Thurman to the midsection while being held until he was forced to let go and run. Believe me, it would be a mismatch. If Haymon makes that fight in the near future, then it’ll be the turning of the WBA title from Thurman to Spence, because he’s clearly a much bigger, stronger and better fighter than Thurman in my view. Thurman does well against certain type of fighters, but Spence is not one of them that his game is suited for.