Thurman-Porter - Expect Announcement Soon, Says DiBella

by David P. Greisman

There have been several chapters in the long story of whether welterweights Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter would fight, and then where and when that fight would be. No announcement was made during Saturday’s Showtime card featuring heavyweight title bouts Deontay Wilder vs. Artur Szpilka and Charles Martin vs. Vyacheslav Glazkov, but promoter Lou DiBella says the wait might not be much longer.

“I think you’ll find out where the fight’s going to be pretty quickly, because if it’s going to be March 12, there’s going to have to be an announcement pretty soon,” DiBella said at the post-fight press conference at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where he was once again helping to put on a show involving fighters signed with boxing adviser Al Haymon.

Several boxing reporters have been all over the various potential dates and locations. The latest reports have the fight potentially landing on March 12 at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. DiBella wouldn’t confirm that.

“It’s going to take place where we think would be an attractive location for fans,” he said.

There was a time when the fight looked as if it could be on March 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But then the Ultimate Fighting Championship put in a request for UFC 197 to be at that place on that day, a huge card that will have one big star, Conor McGregor, fighting Rafael dos Anjos in the main event while Holly Holm, the woman who knocked out Ronda Rousey, would take on Miesha Tate in a co-feature.

DiBella disputed that.

“I don’t think anything was kicked out for the UFC or whatever. I can tell you for a fact it was never scheduled. There was a lot of talk, but there was never any definitive talk to put it in Las Vegas,” he said. “You want to keep your alternatives open. If there was a deal executed to have a fight happen in Vegas, it would’ve happened in Vegas on the 5th. There was never a deal done. There’s a big difference between holding a date with the commission and having a deal done. Often you’re looking at various locations, you need to contact the commission and put it on the ledger.

“I think there’ll be more energy someplace else anyway,” he said.

BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan, citing anonymous sources, said the fighters have agreed to fight and the date is set, but that the venue is the last thing still working on being confirmed.

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