By Dan Ambrose: WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) could be about to face his first real test of his career on October 3rd with him possibly facing former IBF 147lb champion Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions [PBC], according to fighthype.com. The Thurman-Porter fight would be on the same card as former three division world champion Adrien Broner vs. former WBA 140lb champion Khabib Allakhverdiev.
The Thurman vs. Porter fight would be the main event on the October 3rd on the PBC card and the Broner- Allakhverdiev fight would be the co-feature bout.
This is quite a step up for Thurman from the guys he’s been facing his entire career. Thurman has been matched fairly weekly against fighters from yesterday in recent years rather than the top relevant fighters in the sport. Thurman was even given his WBA title by the World Boxing Association outside of the ring rather than him having to beat someone good to earn it.
In Thurman’s last fight, he backpedaled all night long to defeat former WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo by a 9th round stoppage. Thurman was hurt by a body shot in the early going, but he was able to run his way out of the round. Collazo was the WBA champion seven years ago, but his career has dissolved since losing the strap to Ricky Hatton.
Collazo had recently been beaten badly by Amir Khan by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in 2014. Why Thurman agreed to fight Collazo is unclear. He says it was the only name that was offered to him by his adviser Al Haymon. Whatever the case, it was just another in long line of weak opponents that Thurman has faced during his career.
Before the Collazo fight, Thurman defeated Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, Leonard Bundu, Julio Diaz, Jesus Soto Karass, Diego Chavez, Jan Zaveck and Carlos Quintana. Those are all B-level opponents. Guerrero was the best of the bunch, but he’s not been the same fighter he once was since his wide 12 round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013. Guerrero was never a true welterweight, as he started his career out as a super featherweight and only moved up to the welterweight division in 2012.
Porter lost his IBF 147lb title last year in September in a defeat to Kell Brook. Since then, Porter has been Erick Bone and Adrien Broner. The victory over Broner was an impressive one last June, because Porter showed that he’d improved from his performance against Brook, who used constant clinching to defeat him. Broner tried to clinch Porter nonstop like Brook had, but Porter fought though the clinches and worked Broner over on the inside. This forced Broner to use a lot of movement to keep out of the way of Porter.
Thurman does not like to stand in the pocket against his opposition. He prefers to land pot shots and then scurry away. Some boxing fans think Thurman does this out of necessity because he doesn’t have a great chin. We saw him get hurt in his fights against Diego Chaves and Jesus Soto Karass.
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