Keith Thurman vs. Shawn Porter replay tonight on CBS Sports Net

By Boxing News - 06/27/2016 - Comments

Thurman vs Porter

By Allan Fox: For boxing fans that didn’t get a chance to see last Saturday night’s thrilling fight between WBA World welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) and Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 KOs), the fans can see it tonight on CBS Sports Network at 10:00 p.m. ET. Thurman won the fight just barely by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113.

CBS will also be showing the war between 154lb contenders Jarrett Hurd and Oscar Molina, which in some ways was a more action-packed fight than the Thurman-Porter fight. The Hurd-Molina fight was pure punching with the movement that we saw from Thurman, who did a fair amount of circling of the ring to avoid Porter’s attacking style.

While some boxing fans believe that Thurman-Porter fight is a Fight of the Year candidate, I don’t agree with that opinion. The June 4th fight between WBC super featherweight champion Francisco Vargas and Orlando Salido on HBO was the far better fight than the Thurman vs. Porter contest. There is no comparison at all.

Salido and Vargas slugged for 12 rounds in a back and forth fight. It was all action with no running and no holding like we saw with the Thurman-Porter fight. If Thurman hadn’t reverted to his “circle fighting” and his holding at times to keep Porter from being able to land, then it would have been a more thrilling fight and a candidate for the Fight of the Year, but Thurman ruined it.

I think Porter was the one that made the fight. If not for him pressing the action, Thurman would have fought like he always does by moving in to land one or two shots, and then scurrying away to keep from getting hit. Thurman typically does not like to stand in the pocket against his opponents.

It’s all about him hitting and then moving away. We saw of that last Saturday night with Thurman moving away from Porter and being chased around the ring. It was only exciting because of Porter. He wasn’t just going to let Thurman run from him without trying to chase him down.

If Thurman wants to become a star, then he needs to stop holding and running in his fights, because it hard on the eyes to watch someone like that. Unfortunately for Thurman, he’s not always going to fight someone that will chase him like Porter did. That means we’re likely going to see Thurman using his hit and run style in his future fights and it winding up being very boring to watch.

The Thurman-Porter fight will also be replayed next month on July 1 at 11:00 p.m. ET on CBS Sports network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S66ct81Z_2Y

Porter wants a rematch against Thurman, because he believes he can do a better job the second time around than he did last Saturday. The rematch will very likely take place in the future, but Thurman may need to fight his WBA mandatory David Avanesyan next. Thurman also wants to fight a unification match against WBC champion Danny Garcia. That fight is unlikely to happen. Garcia has got three potential fights coming up against Andre Berto, Adrien Broner and Amir Khan. Those are all winnable fights for Garcia, and he’ll almost surely take those fights rather than fighting Thurman with his hit and run style of fighting.

If Thurman wants to become a big star in the sport like Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao or Gennady Golovkin, I think he needs to stop running and become more of an attacking type of fighter. Thurman needs to fight like Golovkin, because he’s too timid when it comes to standing in front of his opponents. Thurman was forced to slug with Porter last Saturday. You don’t want to have to see a fighter that is being forced to fight in exciting manner.

The fans want to see a fighter that initiates the action like Golovkin. Thurman should go back to the drawing board and remake his fighting style to become more Golovkin-esque and less of a mover in the Erislandy Lara mold. I think Thurman is more like Lara than he is Golovkin, which is sad because he’s got the wrong style to become a star in my view. I don’t know that Thurman has the will power or the chin to fight like Golovkin though. It takes courage to fight like Triple G.