For the inaugural year of Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions series, Keith Thurman has been named its fighter of the year for 2015, as selected by the PBC's television partners including: ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC, CBS, Spike, and Bounce. Some had high hopes for the new series, others expected more of the same by way of less-than-compelling matches, and taken as a whole, the latter thought proved about right.
There weren't a many great fights made on PBC this year, but there were a few that we intriguing when announced. And Thurman winning its Fighter of the Year award probably isn't surprising as he appeared to be the face of the series, headlining two fights as the kick-off events for a couple of the PBC's networks.
Thurman beat out Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Leo Santa Cruz, and Deontay Wilder to win the honors. Thurman fought twice this year, with both fights appearing on PBC. In his first fight, he beat Robert Guerrero in the PBC's grand debut back in March (NBC), and then beat Luis Collazo in July for PBC's ESPN debut.
"This year has been spectacular, opening up for two networks -- NBC and ESPN -- and we're truly looking forward to 2016," Thurman said. "We're into the next generation and Keith 'One Time' Thurman represents part of the next generation -- 26-0 with 22 KOs, not afraid to fight anybody. I want to see how far I can go in the world of boxing."
It's expected that Thurman will be taking on Shawn Porter in a highly competitive match-up in the first quarter of 2016, although that fight has not yet been finalized.