In the aftermath of Errol Spence’s title unification win over Shawn Porter, former unified welterweight champion Keith Thurman shares some of his thoughts on the fight. Check out some excerpts of what he had to say below...
Thurman on the Spence-Porter fight:
“Look, I’ve said this many times and I feel like this is another fight that really proves it. You got 20,000 people watching, you’ve got hundreds of thousands that paid for the PPV, right? I saw it, you saw it — there’s three people that matter. There’s three people who’s opinion matter...everybody else is everybody else.
“So [Spence] can win the fight, split decision is a good decision, but I still had the margins close, tighter than that...When Shawn Porter’s doing what Shawn Porter does there’s certain judges that give Shawn a lot of credit because he’s putting in work. There’s other judges that give him no credit, and why is that? Because they don’t see what he’s doing. It’s so short, it’s on the inside, it’s being smothered. As long as [his opponent] is composed and has his hands up in some fashion...if you’re not slapping their head back, if you’re not turning heads, what are you doing? It’s hard to tell what you’re doing if that’s not what you’re doing.”
On how he would compare the Spence-Porter fight to his fight with Porter:
“I think I beat Shawn in cleaner fashion. My judges agreed, I won by unanimous — even with the fact that some people felt differently too. I got those three judges to say unanimous, this was a split, it was the closest fight of Errol’s career. We’ve all been waiting for this moment just to really say ‘hey, it wasn’t that easy.’
“Congratulations to [Spence]. I know the feeling to unify, it’s tremendous. He’s doing a great job, this was an excellent fight, it rivals me and Pacquiao. I was saying that’s what they need to do and they did it. I’m truly impressed with tonight’s performance from both fighters. I think Shawn Porter gets more respect in the welterweight division and I still just believe that with all of us being young, strong, and hungry, it’s still anybody’s division.”