By Dan Ambrose: Interim WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (21-0, 19 KO’s) sees his December 14th clash against #10 WBA Jesus Soto Karass (28-8-3, 18 KO’s) as a building block to get him closer to a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer sees Mayweather-Thurman as the only fight to make for Thurman if he keeps winning.
The Thurman-Soto Karass fight will take place as the co-feature on the Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana Showtime televised card next month at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Thurman said “Soto Karass is one of those stepping stones I need to pass to make my dreams come true [to fight Mayweather]. I can box. I can punch. I’m always looking for one punch. I love ending fights early. I’m ready to plant my feet and throw big punches.”
Schaefer said “If they continue winning like they’ve been winning and the only one left is Floyd Mayweather, they why not make it happen.”
I’m not sure if Mayweather Jr. will want to use up one of his last fights on his contract with Showtime/CBS to fight Keith “One Time” Thurman given that he doesn’t have much of a fan base in the U.S, outside of the hardcore boxing fans. It’s a fight where Mayweather would have to do all the heavy lifting as far as trying to drum up the excitement for the fight, because Thurman wouldn’t bring in a lot of fans. He’d be an unknown to the casual boxing fans. It would be an interesting fight, there’s no questions, but it’s doubtful that Mayweather will ever be tempted to take that fight unless Thurman can pick up a huge amount of fights in the next year.
It’s not surprising that Schaefer is interested in Thurman facing Mayweather because he promotes Thurman, and just by Mayweather fighting him, it’ll make Thurman a more popular fighter in the future and more valuable to Golden Boy’s stable. Thurman is only 24-years-old, so he’s got a lot of time left in his career and he could really use the boost to his career that a fight against Mayweather would give him. However, I’m not sure that Mayweather will be all that interested in fighting a junior middleweight sized welterweight without a large fan base like Thurman.
Instead of trying to match Thurman against Mayweather, Schaefer should be trying to put together a fight between Thurman and WBA champion Adrien Broner because that’s the logical fight to make given that Broner holds the WBA 147 lb. title and Thurman in the interim WBA 147 lb. champion. It seems strange that Schaefer isn’t talking that fight.
Comments are closed.