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Kenny Porter: We plan on punishing Keith Thurman's body

Trainer Kenny Porter took some time to catch up with FightHub to talk about tomorrow night's welterweight showdown between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

Kenny Porter on if Keith Thurman is the best fighter they've faced thus far:

"I would say Keith is. You know, I would say Keith is definitely the best fighter we've fought to this point. He's a great fighter, and we're looking forward to beating a great fighter and becoming great.."

On Thurman saying that he's looking for a knockout in this fight:

"I wish him well, good luck. I've known for a long time if you're trying to knock someone out, you're putting yourself in a position to be knocked out. That's a chance you don't want to take, but if he wants to take that chance we'll let him go ahead and try that."

On if he expects Thurman to be on his bicycle in this fight:

"I feel he's gonna move around a lot, he's also gonna try to clinch. As long as the clinch doesn't become a hold, excessive holding, we're fine with that - that's part of boxing...We're not going to allow him to do that and Shawn knows going into this fight that he can't allow someone to hold him. He can't have a silent agreement with him that says 'ok, you grab me and I'm just gonna stop.' [Shawn] has to fight his way through those clinches and those holds."

On if he sees Shawn stopping Thurman with a body shot given that Thurman was hurt to the body against Luis Collazo:

"I wouldn't say we stop him with a body shot. I will say that we have an intent to punish the body - we do have an intent - and we've prepared that way and we've trained that way. And I know [Thurman] didn't train that way. What I mean by that is that if I go into a gym facility and I say 'ok, today we're working on specific punch placement to body parts and body work' -- solar plexus, liver, kidneys -- and we work on those things, and we work on those things for weeks and months and we take it to the fight -- you've got a problem to deal with that night. You've got a serious problem to deal with that night. So we're going to punish the body, yes, we are.

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