Schaefer wants to match Collazo against Keith Thurman

By Boxing News - 01/31/2014 - Comments

thurman32423By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer saw one of his important chess pieces fall apart in getting stopped in the 2nd round last night with the popular Victor Ortiz (29-5-2, 22 KO’s) getting halted by Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. While Collazo was repeatedly saying that he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. next, Schaefer has a more realistic option for the 32-year-old Collazo by putting him in with the unbeaten interim WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (22-0, 20 KO’s) for his next fight.

To be sure, Thurman isn’t anywhere close to being in the same class as Mayweather in terms of popularity, but it would still be an important fight for Collazo because it would put him in position to get a title shot against WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana if he can beat Thurman.

“One fight that I would love to see is Keith Thurman against Luis Collazo,” Schaefer said to RingTV. “You would have the experience from Luis, which definitely came through last night. Keith Thurman is still very young, and he’s still learning, and he’s obviously a devastating puncher, but I think it would be a fascinating match-up.”

Schaefer needs to be careful with the matches he’s making because we could see the veteran Collazo clean out Golden Boy’s stable one by one if Schaefer keeps giving him cracks at his fighters. I have a feeling that if Collazo beats Thurman, Schaefer won’t bother looking to match him against his other important chess pieces because Collazo could wreck Golden Boy’s entire game if he cleans out all of their fighters. You would have to favor Thurman over Collazo based on his junior middleweight-like size.

Thurman is a huge welterweight, and that would give him an advantage against Collazo. However, Thurman didn’t look so good in his last fight against Jesus Soto Karass when he was stopping to try and punch with him. Soto Karass looked like the stronger fighter and he was getting the better of Thurman before he started moving constantly. The movement gave Soto Karass big problems, as he wasn’t able to deal with it effectively. Collazo is a good inside fighter, and if he could cut off the ring on Thurman and force him to exchange in close, we could see Thurman on the canvas like Ortiz was.

Thurman is waiting until the smoke clears between Marcos Maidana and Adrien Broner to see if he can get a fight against the winner. I doubt he’ll a fight anytime soon, but sooner or later Maidana or Broner will need to fight him if they want to hold onto the WBA strap.



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