(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Gav Duthie: This Saturday hosts several top welterweights in action in Tim Bradley, Amir Khan, Devon Alexander, Victor Ortiz and Keith Thurman. Once again Thurman is left holding the short straw as he faces the 39 year old Italian and European champion Leonard Bundu 31-0-2 (11). Why one of these other self-proclaimed world class fighters doesn’t want to fight Thurman is beyond me.
Promotion
How badly Thurman has been advised is horrible. Golden Boy have steered him in the direction of the WBA where he is the #1 contender. Mayweather is the champion and hell will freeze over before the WBA demands he fight ‘One Time’ as mandatory. Don’t get me wrong I like Bundu as a character and as a fighter. He has came over to the UK twice and beaten Lee Purdy and Frankie Gavin. He is all action and at nearly 40, he like Thurman, is just looking for a crack at the big time. Quite often when a top prospect reaches the 20-0 mark they can be reluctant to step up and take big fights but everything in Thurman’s demeanor suggests he is desperate for these bouts.
Amir Khan – Self proclaimed King Khan is always telling us how is the headline act, how popular he is, how great he is and how he is going to beat both Pacquaio and Mayweather. If he wants to fight Mayweather why doesn’t he move aside Thurman as mandatory challenger to force the issue.
Devon Alexander – In fairness to Devon he has wanted Khan for a long time. They were due to fight this time last year with the Brit turning it down fearing a loss or bad performance would affect his chances of a fight with Mayweather.
Victor Ortiz – The recent claims of Ortiz seem like the delusions of a mad man as he prepares to take on Manuel Perez 22-10-1 (4). Despite losing three fights in a row against Floyd Mayweather, Josesito Lopez and Luis Collazo Victor claims he is one of the greatest of all time and he will prove this. If this is the case surely he would be confident of fighting Thurman as opposed to feather fisted Perez.
Tim Bradley – Apart from netting a staggering 2 million dollars for his bout against Diego Chaves there is precious little benefit in this happening. Chaves is decent but he has never fought anyone at Bradley’s level and has lost his only two big fights against Thurman and Brandon Rios. Bradley has mentioned Mayweather, Canelo and even Middleweight champion Miguel Cotto as possible opponents so why is he not fighting Thurman?
The future
It is so important that Thurman remains focused. If he can on,y get fighters like Bundu just now then so be it. He cannot be complacent and just has to bide his time. He is in a similar situation to Kell Brook a few years ago where nobody wanted to fight him which made people think Brook was scared. If you are not getting the big names all you can do is keep active and keep winning.
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