WBC welterweight titleholder Shawn Porter tells Sky Sports that he’s still in negotiations to face Keith Thurman in a rematch, but expects that fight to be made for early 2019. The two welterweights faced off in a highly anticipated 2016 match which had Thurman edging out a decision by only one round on three judges scorecards.
Since then Thurman has only fought once, almost a full year later, when he took on Danny Garcia in early 2017 to unify welterweight titles by snagging Garcia’s WBC belt. Injuries have since sidelined Thurman, who will soon round out a two-year hiatus from the ring, and Thurman eventually had no choice but to vacate his WBC belt earlier this year.
That move paved the way for Shawn Porter to fight Danny Garcia for the vacant title, with Porter taking the decision. Now Thurman is coming back for his belt — or that’s the plan, at least.
“Right now the mandatory is Keith Thurman and I know the negotiations got underway about three weeks ago and we should know really soon, whether it is going to happen and where it will take place,” he exclusively told Sky Sports.
”He wants the fight. I know for a while he said he wanted a comeback fight and now he’s saying he wants to fight me and accept the mandatory challenge.”
Porter has also been linked to a title unification with IBF champion Errol Spence, but at this point it looks like Spence will be taking on Mikey Garcia instead. And whatever you think of Spence-Garcia as a fight, a Porter-Thurman rematch is an unquestionably high quality match-up.
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