By Ryan Burton

Keith "One Time" Thurman (28-0) made his only ring appearance of the year on Juen 25th when he defeated Shawn Porter (26-2) via unanimous decision at the Barclays Center in New York in a bout that aired live on free-to-air network CBS.  The fight is considered one of the top fights of 2016 and Thurman is very pleased with his performance.

"It was awesome. I am really happy with everything outside of the lack of a knockout. He was rocked. He was wobbled. He stayed composed. He grabbed and wrapped up at the right moments of the fight. He is a tough dude man. I've known the kid for a long time and I expected a tough fight. We got nothing less than we expected. If anything went a little bit more right?" Thurman told BoxingScene.com.

The fight was first supposed to take place in late 2015 before being moved back to March.  The fight was postponed again when Thurman was involved with a car accident.

Rather than having his training camp go to waist, Porter held an exhibition fight against Lanardo Tyner that was broadcast live on Facebook. The fight officially brought an end to his training camp and Porter took a short break afterwards before heading back to camp for the rescheduled date.

The soon to be 28-year-old Thurman believes that he fought the best possible version of Porter because of the extra time in training camp the Las Vegas resident was afforded.

"Part of (not getting the knockout) might have had to do with the fact he got to train through two camps while I had to go on and off due to injuries. We knew that going into the that we might not just be facing Shawn Porter and be facing the best Shawn Porter that the world has ever seen," said Thurman.

Porter has been very vocal about getting a rematch and Thurman is willing to oblige him but prefers a unification bout next.

"Unification is what's really on my mind but I do believe that me and Shawn Porter is a greatly in the future any time that it would occur. I'm pro rematch. I'm pro everything. I'm pro fight world. I didn't wake up and start doing this yesterday. This is my life. I dropped out of high school to make my dreams come true. This isn't for everybody my man. That just shows you the dedication I put into the sport at an early age," Thurman stated.

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