Last night, Keith Thurman overcame severe swelling on his head and a vicious late-rally by Robert Guerrero to score his biggest victory to date, live atop the first-ever “Premier Boxing Champions on NBC” show.
The Floridian started out strong, working the head and body of Guerrero in hopes of getting an early stoppage. The damaged took it’s toll on Guerrero, who failed to gain any sort of foothold through six rounds. Still, Thurman couldn’t break the will of the Mexican-American fighter, and it showed as Guerrero climbed from the canvas in round nine to push the undefeated fighter to his limits with some hard punch combinations.
The fight would end up going to the scorecards, where Guerrero had fallen into a deep deficit early on, and sealed his fate with the knockdown. He needed the finish, and, despite giving it his all, could not find it when he may have had a chance in the championship rounds. The judges scored the fight 118-109, 118-108, and perhaps a less indicative 120-108, all to Keith “One Time” Thurman.
On the undercard, Adrien Broner defeated John Molina Jr in far less emphatic fashion. The fight was contested at arm’s length and saw the fighter from Cincinnati pick apart his opponent. Molina simply didn’t have an answer for what Broner brought to the table, and, at times, didn’t even bother trying to close the distance. Broner’s far-superior speed and reflexes won him almost every round. The fight was scored 120-108, 120-108, and 118-110 — all for “The Problem”.
Also, former world champion Abner Mares fought through some rough stretches to ultimately decision hard-nosed Mexican compatriot Arturo Santos-Reyes. All three judges scored the ten-round contest for Mares; 99-90, 98-91, and 96-93.
The show averaged roughly 3.13 million views in the US, according to early estimations. These are sub-par numbers for a sporting event on a network with as much widespread availability as NBC, but a good start for boxing in it’s return to the mainstream.
View video highlights of the main event from NBC Sports:
