Shame on Brooklyn. Saturday night, one of the best fights of 2016 took place in the Barclays Center. WBA Welterweight Champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (27-0-0, 22 KO) successfully defended his title against former IBF champ Shawn “Showtime” Porter (26-2-1, 16 KO) in a barnburner. The fight featured a heavy dose of toe-to-toe, chest-to-chest and fist-to-chin action for twelve high-impact rounds. Then, after it was announced that Thurman earned a unanimous decision victory, the Brooklynites in the building booed.
I was tempted to write-off the booing as some sort of muscle memory, a subconscious reflex from all the bad basketball seen in Brooklyn recently. However, it was clear that the crowd was showing its disapproval of the judges’ scoring. SMH. The fans witnessed an excellent championship matchup between two of the top fighters in a loaded division, and the fight actually lived up to the hype. Fans in attendance should have given a standing ovation, regardless of who was named the victor.
Brooklyn fight fans were upset because Porter, as always, brought the fight to his opponent all night long. While Thurman is a well-rounded boxer-puncher, Porter is more like a bulldozer without a reverse gear. He’s a short, stocky, muscle-bound bruiser that comes forward and assaults any part of his opponent that he can. Though he’s not necessarily a knockout puncher, Porter routinely mauls and manhandles opponents. Win, lose or draw, Porter’s opponents know they’ve been in a scrap. Thurman’s battered and tattered post-fight face can attest to that notion.
Even though Thurman is a bigger puncher, he was forced to empty out his bag of tricks Saturday night in order to exit the ring with his championship belt. Despite Porter’s unrelenting pressure, Thurman put together a beautiful blend of lateral movement and vicious, precision counter-punching. When Porter jabbed, Thurman caught him with left hooks. When Showtime lowered his head to make a charge, One Time caught him with clean right hands.
The fight was a series of ebbs and flows. The combatants took turns controlling the bout. Porter repeatedly pressured Thurman into the ropes and assaulted his body. Thurman repeatedly used movement and distance to set up clean and devastating punches. According to CompuBox, Porter landed one more punch (236 to 235), but Thurman’s connect percentage was much higher (44 percent to 36 percent). While there were no knockdowns, both men were hurt at some point and had to dig deep to stay vertical.
While the term “Fight of the Year” has been bandied about all week long, it’s unlikely that the fight will ultimately win the award. FOTY is usually reserved for knockouts or in fights where one, or both, of the fighters taste the canvas. However, while Porter vs Thurman may fall short of an award-winning performance, it could still prove to be the most important fight of 2016.
The bout was televised in primetime on network television as part of the PBC on CBS series. Premier Boxing Champions has been televising fights on network TV (and cable TV) for some time now, but the matchups and results have been inconsistent. The PBC name has been watered down by hosting fights on so many networks. PBC offers fights on CBS, NBC, FOX, BounceTV, ESPN, CBS Sports, Spike, FOX Sports, NBCSN and others.
One week, viewers may get an exciting matchup between Porter and Adrien Broner. Next they’ll get a gross mismatch between Peter Quillen and Michael Zerafa. For that reason, reviews and ratings of the different PBC shows have been all over the place. With Thurman versus Porter though, PBC knocked it out of the park squared circle. The Showtime-produced event marked the first time boxing appeared on CBS in primetime since Muhammad Ali faced Leon Spinks on Feb. 15, 1978. Because of the quality matchup, more than two million people tuned in to see the fantastic welterweight showdown. That easily makes it the most-watched fight of the year to date.
Hopefully PBC will see the light and continue using the major networks to broadcast competitive bouts between well-known stars. The sport of boxing will never shy away from showcasing prospects and fringe stars against tomato cans, but those bouts should occur on the smaller cable stations, not network TV.
PBC next network television showcase will be July 16 when WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder matches up against former title contender Chris Arreola on FOX. Though Arreola seems to be on the downside to his career, his Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em style should present a solid challenge for Wilder. The champ should be a heavy favorite going into the matchup. However, look for Arreola to play the role of Porter and Wilder to mimic Thurman in terms of strategy.
If the heavyweight bout is nearly as entertaining as the recent welterweight scrap, it may help PBC and boxing on network TV turn the corner. For far too long, fight fans have had to subscribe to premium cable networks and pay exorbitant pay-per-view fees to watch decent fights between upper echelon fighters. Hopefully Thurman vs Porter showed the PBC, TV networks and fans that big-time boxing can succeed on free TV.
Rampage lackluster in STL
There was a time when I followed MMA almost as closely as I followed boxing. Standout stand-up fighters like former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson were a big reason. But I turned my back as jiu jitsu fighters and their ground game became more and more prevalent, turning many MMA matches from slugfests into hug fests. When it was announced that Jackson (37-11) would be in St. Louis to headline Bellator 157, I couldn’t resist.
I knew that at 38-years-old and just emerging from a long contractual rights battle between Bellator and the UFC that Rampage would probably not be in prime form. Still, if there’s one thing I knew, it’s that Jackson like to throw hands. Unfortunately, the headliner was admittedly in poor shape and his opponent, Satoshii Ishii (14-6-1), didn’t have any interest in engaging in stand-up combat. The result was a boring, three-round decision victory by Jackson. Many fight fans thought Ishii deserved the win, as he kept Jackson on the ground for much of the bout. However, the uninspiring fight was close enough that the decision is widely considered questionable, rather than a flat out robbery.
Luckily for local MMA fans, St. Louis-native “Iron” Michael Chandler delivered a vicious first-round KO of Patricky Freire in the co-main event. Chandler (15-3) delivered a punishing right hand that put Freire (16-8) to sleep before he hit the canvas. The referee stepped in immediately and the enthused crowed at the Scottrade Center went crazy. With the victory, Chandler reclaimed the Bellator Lightweight Championship.
Despite the lackluster main event, the dual MMA/kickboxing Bellator 157 event was an exciting night for MMA fans in St. Louis.
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