DiBella: Thurman-Porter Will Determine Mayweather's Successor

 By Victor Salazar

New York, New York- The Barclays Center has been synonymous with promoter Lou Dibella as of late. Dibella promoted Deontay Wilder’s January defense at the Brooklyn venue, as well as the all-Brooklyn battle between Danny Jacobs and Peter Quillin in December. Come Saturday night, the fight between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter may trump all of that and be the best selling fight at Barclays which is becoming one of the prime arenas for boxing, especially on the east coast.

“I’m excited as a fan and promoter,” Dibella told BoxingScene.com. “I have a lot of respect for these guys. I’m excited as a fan. There’s a lot of boxing guys here and referees and managers; it’s pretty much split down the middle. A lot of people aren’t sure. The best fighting the best. Its Saturday night, you don’t have to shell out 70 bucks for it, just tune into your local CBS affiliate. Sometimes free ain’t a bad word when it’s the best versus the best, free is a beautiful world. This fight is the best boxing we can put for our fans.”

Aside from the WBA Welterweight title being on the line, Dibella feels the ruler of the welterweight division and successor to Floyd Mayweather might be the winner of this fight.

“This fight is going to determine who the successor is to Mayweather,” stated Dibella. “It’s a hell of a start to the winner of Thurman-Porter. We’re going to be trying to unify the division.”

Dibella told the media that he has been in the phone with the likes of Eddie Hearn (who promotes Kell Brook), Bob Arum (who promotes Jessie Vargas and Tim Bradley), and manager Al Haymon (who manages a plentiful of welterweights). The goal is simple to unify the division.

“We’re going to try,” Dibella said of having an undisputed champion. “Sometime it doesn’t happen when the best fight the best and sometimes it does. Let’s celebrate the fact that it’s happening this Saturday.”

With an expected crowd of 14,000, Dibella expects a good fight, though he won’t budge on not picking a winner.

“It’s a very close fight. I give Keith a slight advantage on power. I give Shawn a slight advantage of game plan and ring generalship. It’s a close fight and I’m keeping my pick close to the vest.”