Thurman vs Collazo

On May 21, 2015, PBC announced Keith Thurman's next bout would take place at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, outside his hometown of Clearwater on July 11, against veteran slugger Luis Collazo (36-6, 19 KOs) on ESPN. Thurman was excited to be in a world title fight in his home state, having last fought there in November 2008. The attendance for the fight 4,136. Collazo badly hurt Thurman with a body shot in the fifth round but the fight ended after the seventh round due to an injury near the eye of Collazo, which blocked his vision. Thurman was declared the winner via TKO. At the time of stoppage, Thurman was ahead 69-64, 68-65, and 69-64 on the scorecards. Thurman commented on fighting  Floyd Mayweather after the bout saying, "I'm a young strong champion, Floyd. Come get it, "I'm a young, strong champion, Floyd. Come get it, I'm undefeated like you, baby. Come take my 0 baby! Come take my 0! I'm ready. I'm ready." Collazo received a $500,00 purse compared to Thurman's $1.5 million. Thurman landed 119 of 348 punches (34 percent) while Collazo connected on just 76 of 244 (31 percent). The fight peaked 1.1 million viewers, averaging only 799,000 viewers.

On January 8, 2016 Premier Boxing Champions requested to the WBA, the upcoming fight between Danny Garcia and Robert Guerrero be for the vacant WBA 'Super' title as Floyd Mayweather Jr. had retired. The WBA denied to sanction the fight, citing they would like to have no more than two welterweight titleholders.

Thurman vs Porter

It was announced on February 17, Thurman would defend his title against Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) on March 12, 2016, at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. On February 23, Thurman's promoter said he had been forced to postpone his upcoming fight with Porter after being injured in a car accident. Lou Di Bella has insisted the injury is not serious or career threatening, but admits the American was lucky to have escaped major injury. Thurman, following the advice of his doctors, was on the sidelines for approximately six weeks before resuming training. Porter announced that his rescheduled world title clash against Thurman will take place on June 25 at the Barclays Center. The World Boxing Association then ordered the winner of the Thurman and Porter to face interim WBA welterweight champion David Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KOs) who beat #3 WBA Shane Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KOs) on May 28.

In an old-fashioned fight of the year, candidate, Thurman successfully defended his title, before a crowd of 12,718, when all three judges scored an identical 115-113 in his favor. Thurman rocked Porter badly on multiple occasions in the fight, he was also hurt himself by a body shot in the eighth round. Thurman earned a $1.4 million purse. This was the first main event televised by CBS in prime time since February 15, 1978, when Muhammad Ali lost a 15 round split decision and the heavyweight title to Leon Spinks in a massive upset. Thurman landed 235 of 539 punches (44 percent) and Porter landed 236 of 662 (36 percent). After the fight, there was immediate talks of a rematch. The fight averaged 3.1 million viewers, according to ESPN. The card itself averaged 2.4 million viewers. The live gate was over $1.1 million in ticket sales, the highest gate in the history of Barclays Center to date, it was also the second highest attendance in the history of Barclays Center, with over 12,000 paying customers in attendance. Premier Boxing Champions voted the bout as their 'Fight of the Year'.

On July 15, WBA announced Thurman would have a mandatory defense against interim WBA champion David Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KOs). Both camps had until August 13 to negotiate the fight or the WBA will order a purse bid. Due to negotiations breaking down, the WBA elevated Avanesyan to 'regular' champion and Thurman was named as the WBA's 'super' champion.