By Raj Parmar: As Kell Brook pulled off the upset against Shawn Porter this past weekend, the fighter that benefited most (other than Brook himself) was Keith “One Time” Thurman (23-0, 21KO’s).
Thurman’s team had been trying to set up a major showdown with Porter however they stated that Porter’s camp had not shown much interest or enthusiasm in finalizing a clash with Thurman.
This left “One Time” in a bad predicament for his quest to become world champion, as he is the mandatory challenger for Floyd Mayweather’s WBA welterweight title and Floyd is scheduled to face Marcos Maidana in September before taking the rest of the year off.
Therefore now Thurman is focusing his title aspirations on Brook. Golden Boy chief Oscar De La Hoya stated after the Porter-Brook fight that Thurman informed him that he is willing to travel to England in order to fight Brook. This obviously would put him at a huge disadvantage as Brook would be fighting on home soil in front of thousands of his fans with the entire country pulling hard for a Brook win.
Thurman however has a motto he likes to say, which is: I’ve got an 0, and I’m not afraid to let it go. This basically means that he is not interested in protecting his undefeated status or trying to pad his record and collect as many checks as possible; all he wants to do is find out who the best fighter in the world is.
This makes Thurman a rare throwback fighter and one of the few remaining boxers who fight more for greatness in the ring than for fame and money. Some might say fighting in England against Brook is not ideal for a rising star in the North America, however Thurman from day one has stated all he wants to do is to prove to the world and to himself that he is the best welterweight in the division. Even more importantly, he wants to face the toughest competition possible in order to see for himself if he is NOT the best and to see which fighters are better than him. And of course the only way to completely know this is by lacing up the gloves against the top fighters in his weight class regardless of the situation.
This definitely is an uncommon mentality for fighters in an era where money in the bank account matters first and knowing who best fighter out there is matters much less. At the end of the day boxing is about fighting the best in order to prove who the best fighter is at a certain weight class, and Thurman wants to know and is definitely willing to check up close for himself just who the best fighter really is at welterweight.
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