Keith Thurman willing to wait for big fights

By Boxing News - 07/01/2015 - Comments

thurman4By Allan Fox: WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) isn’t in any kind of rush to get the huge mega-fights that are out there awaiting him in the future. While he’d like to get the big match-ups against the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, he realizes that he’s the new generation of fighter and he’ll be getting the big fights once those guys walk away from the sport within a year or two.

The 26-year-old Thurman sees the welterweight division running through him in the future, as he takes over the 147lb class and becomes the big king of the division. It’s unfortunate that he can’t get a baton-passing fight against the likes of Mayweather or Pacquiao before they retire from boxing, but he’s not worried about it.

In the worst case scenario, Thurman could find himself locked in the same position as WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin or WBA super middleweight champ Andre Ward, where he’s the best fighter at 147 but is unable to get the other top fighters to face him.

That’s where those two guys are, and it’s unclear if either of them is going to be able to land a big money fight while they’re still in their prime. If Thurman does become a big star on his own, then he won’t need to worry about being avoided because he’ll have fans flocking to see his fights regardless of whether the other top welterweights want to fight him or not.

“A lot of people, they’re just impatient in this sport. They want to talk a little bit now but they want to talk about more later,” Thurman said via Skysports.com. “It takes time for big fights to blow up. It happens. Me and my team, we take one fight at a time. We’re looking forward to July 11, we’ve trained for July 11. We’re not training for anything else.”

Thurman will be fighting Luis Collazo (36-6, 19 KOs) in a week and a half from now on July 11th on ESPN from the USF Sundome, in Tampa, Florida, USA. It likely doesn’t matter how good Thurman looks in the fight. Even if he impresses in a major way, he’s likely going to be ignored by Mayweather and Pacquiao, because he’s too young and dangerous at this point in his career for either of those guys to fight him.

Thurman would like to beat Collazo and then face Amir Khan, but that’s a fight that Khan has shown no interest in. Khan wants the mega-fight against Mayweather without having to take a risky bout against the likes of Thurman first because it’s simply too dangerous of a fight for Khan to take it. But Thurman can definitely help himself if he looks really great against Collazo and is able to obliterate him quickly.

Collazo hasn’t been stopped in ages, and it’ll be a nice feather in Thurman’s cap if he can get him out of there quickly rather than having to labor through 12 rounds to get the win.

“It’s an industry, it’s a business. It takes time. I’ve learned that. I’ve been on the scene for three years now,” Thurman said. “Just earlier this year, I got my first fighter in the top 10 [Robert Guerrero].”

Thurman has picked up some nice wins lately with victories over Robert Guerrero, Leonard Bundu, Jesus Soto Karass and Diego Chaves. Adding Collazo’s scalp to his resume would look really good right now, and might open some doors for him.



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