by David P. Greisman

Keith Thurman narrowly outpointed Shawn Porter, taking seven rounds to five on all three scorecards and retaining his welterweight title. While the bout was close, Thurman said he was able to do exactly what he’d hoped to do to win the fight.

“Defense,” he said at the post-fight press conference. “Defense, defense, defense. Pick your shots and be effective. Short uppercuts on the inside. I knew Shawn likes to use his head movement. He likes to be in your chest I was going to capitalize on his strength and let him try to bull rush me all night.”

Thurman said he knew Porter would get low and get inside, but he felt Porter being inside wasn’t going to get him the victory on the scorecards if the fight went the distance.

“The one thing that Shawn does is he brings it, but he brings it in a fashion that is not fully effective,” Thurman said. “If you want to take the title, you need to be more effective — proper angles, popping the head back, more clean shots, not just smothering and trying to outwork. You got to win with effective blows. When he was throwing, throwing, throwing, them little punches on the inside, we’re clipping him on the chin, clipping him here and clipping him there. It was clear, man.

“At this stage and this level, defense is key. In any sport, to be champion, you must have some of the best defense and some of the best offense. I was at the last Super Bowl. You got to see two of the best teams who had the best defenses in the NFL for that season, but the one that had the best defense was victorious. That’s just an example. Coming from the gym of Winky Wright, learning how to protect yourself, wanting to establish a little bit of the Rope a Dope, my personal shout out to Muhammad Ali.

“Floyd Mayweather used it against Marcos Maidana. This fight reminds me a little bit of that fight, where one fighter is really coming in, giving his all, not backing down, but I believe I was able to land the clearer punches and more effective and rocked him several times in the fight.”

The punch stats from CompuBox were pretty close. Thurman was credited with landing 235 punches, including 203 power shots. Porter was credited with landing 236 punches, including 177 power shots. Broken over the course of 12 rounds, even that unofficial 26-punch difference in landed power shots only breaks down to about two more punches landed per round. Yet Thurman was also seen as having more power, and he feels his cleaner blows also curried favor from the judges.

In the end, he was right.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com