By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Kenny Porter sees his son former IBF welterweight champion “Showtime” Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) beating WBA World welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) in every facet of the game in their contest on June 25 on Showtime Boxing from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Kenny sees Porter beating the 27-year-old Thurman on the inside and outside in this fight. Kenny believes that Shawn is the faster, stronger and the guy with the better game plan in this fight. We’re going to find out if Kenny is right or not when the two talented 147lb fighters get inside the ring on 6/25.
“You can beat him punching. You can beat him on the inside. You can beat him on the outside. He’s not faster than you. He’s not stronger than you. He’s not quicker than you,” said Kenny Porter. “He isn’t going to have the better game plan. That dude’s going to have a lot of problems on fight night. There’s no duck, no dodge, no hiding. If you’re better than us, then prove you’re better than us,” said Kenny.
I don’t think Porter is going to be getting too many chances to do much on the inside against Thurman in this fight, because we’re very likely going to see “One Time” staying on the move for 12 rounds. Thurman isn’t going to stand and trade with Porter, because it would mean he would have to put himself in danger of getting hit, and Thurman is not that type of fighter. He talks big, but he doesn’t back it up in terms of being willing to stand in the pocket like Porter or other fighters. Thurman will come forward, unload a right hand or left hook, and then back away so that he doesn’t get hit too many times by Porter if at all.
“I know how to beat him,” said Shawn Porter about Thurman.
Porter knows Thurman’s fighting style well because the two fighters are good friends and have sparred together in the past. During the brief glimpse I got of their sparring session conducted years ago, Thurman was seen moving away from Porter in almost second of the video. Kenny Porter can be heard encouraging Porter to keep working to go after Thurman, because he looked at times he was getting frustrated with the movement.
Thurman appeared to be moving too much and it resembled running rather than just moving around the ring. It didn’t seem to benefit Thurman much, because when he would come forward, Porter was always waiting for him. Thurman might have been better off just standing and fighting, and leaning away from Porter’s shots rather than wasting valuable energy stalling out the action by moving. The movement helped neither fighter because it wasted time in the rounds, and it had to be taking something out of Thurman having to do all the moving.
It would be a real shame if Thurman turns the Porter fight into another Adrien Broner vs. Porter type of fight. That would be a really boring fight if that happens. For the boxing fans that forget how the Broner-Porter fight played out last year, it involved a great deal of moving/running by Broner to escape the attacks from Porter.
Broner couldn’t just stand and fight Porter because he was getting worked over by him. So instead of fighting, Broner did a lot of moving and ton of holding. The holding didn’t work because Porter fought through all the clinches and punished Broner on the inside. It was an ugly fight from Broner other than 12th round, when he caught Porter with a big left hook and knocked him down. However, Broner wasn’t able to do much in the other parts of the fight, he wound up losing badly. But hopefully we don’t see Thurman running from Porter in this fight because it’s going to really cause it to be a stinker.
Thurman needs to be mindful that he not has only to win, but he also needs to look good while winning. He can’t go out and play a hit and run style for 12 rounds, because the boxing fans will book him out of the ring. It would be a bad career move for Thurman to be seen running from Porter for 12 rounds instead of fighting him.