Photo courtesy of Premier Boxing Champions

Kenny Porter is pushing for his son, Shawn, to return to the ring in the next “eight to ten weeks” in either New York, Las Vegas or California, and is lobbying hard for a rematch with Keith Thurman in 2017, he told RingTV.com on Tuesday.

One opponent Porter doesn’t think Shawn (26-2-1, 16 knockouts) will face in the near future is Errol Spence Jr., who looked sensational in stopping 41-year-old Leonard Bundu in the sixth round on Sunday in Coney Island on NBC.

“That would be an excellent and wonderful fight,” Porter said of a matchup with Spence. “It’s a fight that could possibly happen one day, a little further down the line. Errol hasn’t quite gotten to where we’re at with the people we want to fight right now, the Keith Thurmans, Danny Garcias of the world — those guys who we have unfinished business with.”

Porter is very familiar with Spence from his time working with him in the amateurs as a technical advisor for USA Boxing; Porter says he accompanied Spence to tournaments in the Ukraine and Azerbaijan. But a bout with Thurman, whom Porter lost a close, entertaining decision to in June, remains the priority.

“If you really think about it for a second, the Keith Thurman fight is a bigger fight and that’s something we will be revisiting before we’re looking at a guy like Errol,” said Porter, who spoke from Anaheim, California, where Victor Morales Jr., a fighter he just signed, will make his pro debut on Saturday on the undercard of Robert Guerrero-David Peralta. “That rematch is more realistic in terms of what we will do and what might be in the upcoming year of 2017,” he went on. “That’s the biggest fight for us. Errol had a big fight but we’re looking at Keith and getting back in there with him.”

Porter said the possibility of facing Thurman next remained remote because Thurman has been ordered by the WBA to face mandatory David Avanesyan. “I think because of the mandatory situation I don’t think a (rematch) would happen next,” Porter said. “The mandatory is the mandatory.” In any event, discussions are ongoing with respect to trying to find the next opponent for Shawn, a former welterweight titleholder, though his father and trainer declined to go into detail.

“It’s not something that they want to put out at this point but we’re definitely working hard at what I call the fight before the fight,” Porter said. “It could be a championship fight. It could be a top-10 guy. It could be a rematch. We’re open to all those. Obviously, that was a great fight with Keith and we definitely want to revisit that. As far as if that will be the next fight, that will be determined by the networks and the people that are in place putting things together.”

Porter doesn’t think his friendship with Spence would hinder a potential fight down the road between the two since, according to Porter, “We fight our friends.”

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