Via Jim Calfa: Shawn Porter hopes Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman can show the same ability he did when he faced Mario Barrios on February 5 on FOX pay-per-view at Michelob Ultra Arena, Las Vegas .
Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs) has underperformed in his last three games since a thrilling 12th round unanimous win over ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter in June 2016.
That war is 66 months ago, and Thurman has ONLY fought three times in the last five years.
Well, some inactivity can be blamed on Thurman’s injuries, not all.
Inactivity destroyed Thurman’s career
Some good boxers get up from the sofa to get back to work, while others like Thurman get stuck due to inactivity and are stuck tight.
There’s a lot of money to be made if Thurman beats Barrios, as he has forced WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford into a bit of a fight to hand him a title.
Crawford is aging at 35, and he needs to fight Thurman as soon as possible as he is being chased by the lion cub Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
If Crawford doesn’t cash in the fight now while he can, he may not be champion for much longer. Ennis is coming after Crawford and he’s hungry and all is wrong for the old Nebraska native.
Is Thurman broken?
That outage could not be explained by Thurman’s injury. He was enjoy the fruits of your labor and unwilling to return to the war zone to dodge shots from dangerous fighters like Errol Spence Jr, Terence Crawford, Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Aside from wanting to see a top Thurman go up against Barrios, Porter didn’t want to see Keith disappear again and sitting on his wallet from that war, spent all his money until he went bankrupt in a few years, needing to come back as needed.
Some believe the need for money is what started Thurman’s latest comeback, that the 33-year-old’One Time’ has run out of powder he gained from his last fight with Pacquiao in the nearly three years he left the ring.
If that’s why Thurman ultimately decided to return to the ring, it’s disappointing that he could have made so much money over the past three years.
How much effort will Thurman take to fight once a year for the past three years? Not much, but he couldn’t even do it.
In Thurman’s final three games, he struggled to beat Danny Garcia and Josesito Lopez, then Manny Pacquiao is 40 years old in a fight he would have won if he had shot all eight cylinders.
Porter wants Thurman to fight like he used to
“I think Keith beat Marios Barrios, I think. He should beat Mario Barrios, and he has to fight Terence Crawford,” Shawn Porter said in Porter Way Podcast in prediction Thurman beat Barrios on February 5.
“I want my friend [Keith Thurman] come back here and be who he is,” Porter continued to want a main Thurman adapted from 2016 to appear in his next fight against Barrios.
“Keith needs to come in and get in the ring with Mario Barrios. I don’t know what his wallet will be like, but he can’t afford to sit in that wallet until you run out of bags.
“You need to fight. You’re in your prime or damn as close as you can get, and get back in there and show who you are,” Porter said of Thurman.
It’s unlikely Thurman will be anywhere near the fighter he fought with years before he fought Porter in 2016.
You can’t leave a sport and think you can pick it up six years later and be the athlete you were.
“He just deserves the biggest fights,” Porter said of Crawford likely waiting until the smoke clears from the Thurman vs. Barrios in February to face Keith the following summer.
“It was a good fight,” Porter said as Crawford took on Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor was the pick for Bud in early 2022.
