Showtime Boxing is at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York with a major welterweight fight between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter as the main event.Thurman (26-0) is defending his WBA world tite at 147 pounds for the second time, while Porter comes in with a 26-1-1 overall record and he is a former IBF world titlist. Porter lost his belt to England’s Kell Brook, but he is still one of the top three welterweights in the world today according to the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB.org). The match-up of two top 147 pound fighters sees Thurman a -220 favorite at the books, while Porter is returning at +180.
Both men have questions that they need to answer in this fight. Thurman is the undefeated champion, but this match-up was postponed once already ecause of a Thurman car accident. There has been talk that Thurman has had to alter his training as a result of the neck injury he sustained, but that may be pre-fight misinformation. Thurman is a superb technician who has a lot of power, and he is going to need every dimension of his game against Porter. Thurman´s last fight was in July of 2015, so this fight comes after a near year long layoff. Thurman is going to have to prove he is not rusty and that he has not lost anything physically after the car acident.
Porter is ready for this fight. Porter deeply felt the loss of his IBF title to Brook, but it was a fight in which he was outcassed by the Britsih fighter. In Thurman, he may be facing an even better fighter than Brook was when he they fought, and that is a scary proposition for Porter. Porter too has been off for a year, and that is largely because he chose to wait for the matchup with Thurman. In his last fight, he outbrawled Adrien Broner back on June 20th, of 2015. Perhaps something to make note of is that Porter got dropped by Broner in the last round of their fight. Porter’s confidence at times may border on arrogance, and he needs to have no let downs and be sharp the whole 36 minutes against Thurman.
The overall card suffered when the Abner Mares vs Jesus Marcello Cuellar WBA featherweight world title fight fell apart. Mares apparently failed a medical exam in NYC and cannot be licensed. No relacement for Mares has been announced, so Cuellar will be sidelined as well. The Jarrett Hurd (17-0) versus Oscar Molina (13-0-1) bout si likely to be moved up to co-feature status.
The undercard as it stands today is not getting attention at the books yet, but check back later in the week for more lines from the Barclays Center card.