Photo by Ryan Greene / Premier Boxing Champions

On March 12, Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman were set to throw down in a highly anticipated matchup of rising stars in the welterweight division. However, a car accident involving Thurman derailed those plans and led to the bout being postponed. Rather than waste an entire training camp, Team Porter decided to use the opportunity to host a 12-round exhibition match with Lanardo Tyner and stream the event on Facebook.

For the Porters, this was a necessary evil, as Shawn Porter wanted to keep moving as if nothing changed and compete on the night he was supposed to fight Thurman. Regardless of the announcement that the fight had been rescheduled for June 25, Team Porter didn’t want to waste all the hard work put in.

“We wanted to put a cap on this camp so we can move on to the next one,” Kenny Porter told RingTV.com. “Shawn will get a week off and get right back into camp. This is something he would normally do anyway.”

There were reports that Team Porter had grown restless of having to wait for Thurman to heal and began to poke around for another opponent. With Porter’s last fight coming against Adrien Broner back in June, having a year off wasn’t an ideal situation.

“We were very serious about moving on,” Kenny Porter revealed. “But they came back with a date and it is a doable date for us. It’s still CBS and they haven’t had a world champion fight in almost 40 years. We’re looking forward to that platform.”

Shawn Porter echoed his father’s sentiments about moving forward with another opponent but felt that they couldn’t get anything bigger than what they already had with Keith Thurman and CBS.

“We’ve been patient this long so we might as well just wait it out. We were told that there was no other option out there but Keith,” Shawn Porter said.

Both Kenny and Shawn are adamant that the 28-year-old former titleholder will fight twice this year. While Kenny Porter tells RingTV.com that Timothy Bradley would be their “dream fight,” realistically both he and Shawn believe that there’s a distinct possibility that they will be facing Thurman twice in 2016.

“There’s a rematch clause if Keith loses, but not if he beats Shawn,” Porter said. Although Porter did find it odd that his son wouldn’t be granted that same luxury, he understood that concessions needed to be made in order for the fight to happen. “That was already set and there was nothing we could do about it. I think he wants to steal a victory if he can and not look back. But we’re not giving you that victory baby! We want two fights this year.”

Yearlong layoffs aren’t something that the Porters want to see become a common occurrence. With Porter still being young, he figures that it’s best to stay busy rather than sit on the sidelines.

“And that (rematch clause) is why I think we’ll end up fighting Keith twice this year,” Shawn said.

What could be found odd in the buildup to this fight is the lack of interviews Thurman has done. While the Porters have been openly discussing everything around this fight since last year, and Shawn Porter putting in time as a guest commentator, the silence of Thurman seems to be a bit uncharacteristic. But Shawn Porter doesn’t put too much stock in it and despite not being big on talking, he realizes that he may have to carry the promotion.

“I don’t care about his silence,” Porter said. “That could be his strategy at this point. I’m not mad at him if it is. I’m not a talker and I’ve been put in positions where I had to talk and didn’t want to. I understand that we have a fight to promote. But if I had it my way, all the talking would be in the ring on June 25.”