Arum: Thurman-Porter is Good Fight, Hope it Gets Good Rating

By Ryan Burton

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum is pleased that we are finally going to see the highly anticipated Keith Thurman (26-0, 22KOs) vs. Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16KOs) bout tomorrow evening on CBS. The WBA welterweight title fight has seemingly been in the works for 9 months or longer but has been pushed back multiple times due to injuries and other factors.

The 84-yeas-old Hall of Fame promoter believes that these are the types of fights that belong on free to air television and not fights like last week's Andrzej Fonfara shocker, where he was knocked out in the first round by unheralded Joe Smith Jr. that was broadcast on NBC.

"That is a good fight. It is about time, you know, it kills me when they put on not a great card on primetime network television like Saturday's card was awful.  This is a good fight and hopefully it gets a good rating," Arum told BoxingScene.com.

With Top Rank's lawsuit against Al Haymon settled, I asked Arum should Vargas beat Kell Brook in September, would the Thurman-Porter winner and WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia be in the discussion for his next fight?

"Absolutely," Arum replied.

As for Arum's other top level welterweight, Tim Bradley, who last saw action in April when he lost an unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao, Arum said the Southern California native will likely return towards the end of the year. 

"He didn't want to fight again until late this year. He said to leave him alone for the summer. He is happy with the money he made and he wants to enjoy life and then we will think about what we do with Timothy," said Arum.

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