By Jake Donovan
With neither boxer having logged an official fight since last summer, it could take a round or more for the highly anticipated June 25 clash between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter to kick into high gear.
Thurman will have been out of the ring for more than 11 months and was forced to recover from injuries sustained in a car accident earlier this year. Porter will have not fought in exactly 53 weeks by the time the opening bell sounds for their upcoming CBS primetime televised affair.
Neither seem particularly concerned with ring rust or any other potential factors that can come with such a lengthy layoff. If anything, they both take the glass half-full approach, insisting it only adds to the buildup for the long-awaited welterweight title fight.
“We wanted to fight again around the end of October. It’s boxing, you just have to roll with the punches,” Porter (26-1-1, 16KOs) reveals of his hoped-for plans in getting in another bout before the one he’s about to enter, undoubtedly the biggest of his young career to date.
While not an ideal scenario to go into such a dangerous fight after being out for so long, Porter has managed to find ways to remain active since posting a career best win over Adrien Broner last June.
The stop-and-starts in camp included a publicized exhibition bout in his adopted home of Las Vegas, which was live-streamed on the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) Facebook page. The event took place on March 12, the originally scheduled date for a bout that was already months in development and had endured several other delays along the way.
Sparring is not the same as the actual experience that comes with fight night, but it’s not rare for top-level boxers to find their way once the action begins. Oscar de la Hoya hadn’t fought in 15 months heading into his eventual 11th round knockout of Fernando Vargas, who’d been out for a year prior to their Sept. ’02 clash, which was one of the best of that year.
Another example of a true professional picking up where he left off surfaced just this past weekend.
“Demetrius Andrade is a prime example of not having ring rust,” Porter notes of the unbeaten super welterweight, who fought just once in each of the past three years. His June ’14 knockout win over Brian Rose was followed by legal dilemmas as it relates to boxing politics, resulting in a forced 16-month layoff before returning last October.
That tune-up was met with another eight-month layoff before picking apart perennial Top 10 contender Willie Nelson on June 11 at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.
“He hadn’t fought, came out and did a spectacular job,” Porter commented of Andrade’s breakout performance over the weekend. “I didn’t want it this way, but I don’t plan on showing ring rust and look forward to putting on a spectacular performance.”
The sentiment is shared by his opponent, though of course from an entirely different perspective.
Thurman (26-0, 22KOs) had never spent more than eight months between fights prior to 2016. In fact, a major sales pitch offered by PBC brass was the fact that he was potentially looking at three high-profile – and well-paying – assignments in 2015, had original plans mapped out and their bout landed on NBC last December.
Instead, a few extra details delayed talks and finalization of the welterweight scrap, which was finally assigned to take place on March 12 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. The show was postponed after Thurman sustained in a car accident in late February, moving to June and to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
For Porter, it meant stopping camp and finding a way to maintain weight before picking back up once the fight was rescheduled. As it went for Thurman, it meant rest and rehabilitation before returning to the gym. However, he insists it doesn’t change the manner in which he plans to win.
“The accident didn’t hurt me or help me (in terms of training),” Thurman insists. “We didn’t change up our game plan from the first training camp to this training camp. We were focused on my getting back in shape, that was the most specific instruction from the doctor. We reached that point a while ago and back to training for this fight.”
That said, there was ample opportunity to have fought since his 7th round knockout of Luis Collazo. The fight took place last July in Tampa, not too far from his training headquarters at St. Pete’s Boxing Club in Tampa and reasonably close to his hometown in Clearwater.
While an enjoyable homecoming, it’s not exactly where you want to last leave off heading into a fight of this magnitude.
Then again…
“It’s just the way that the chips fell,” Thurman says in accepting the situation for what it is. “Me and Shawn both could’ve got a performance in. But we can look forward to putting on a great performance as opposed to just putting on a regular show before June 25.”
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2
