Mayweather isn’t unhurtable, says Thurman

By Boxing News - 07/07/2015 - Comments

thurman8888By Dan Ambrose: WBA World welterweight champion Keith Thurman’s persistence in trying to get a fight against WBA/WBC 147lb champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is starting to remind some boxing fans of the way that Amir Khan has been after Mayweather lately in trying to land a big payday fight on September 12th.

Thurman insists he’s in on the Mayweather conversation in terms of potential candidates for his September fight despite the fact that Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellberbe is saying that he’s not someone they’re thinking about after he turned down a fight against unbeaten Errol Spence Jr. (17-0, 14 KOs), who they wanted Thurman to fight on the Mayweather undercard on September 12th for one of Mayweather’s world titles.

If Thurman plays his cards right, he might be a viable candidate for Mayweather to fight in 2016, but for that to happen, Thurman is going to need to listen to what Mayweather is asking him to do and make sure he follows his instructions.

This means that if Mayweather is offering Thurman to fight on his undercard against Errol Spence, then Thurman needs to consider doing just that. Mayweather has something that Thurman wants, and the only way he’s going to get that is by following Maweather’s instructions. Right now, Mayweather wants Thurman to fight Spence. Perhaps that’ll change in the future with Mayweather wanting him to fight someone else, but for now it’s Spence that he wants him to fight.

“They call Mayweather unbeatable,” Thurman said via the Dailynews.com. “He’s not unhurtable. You can see things he does in the ring. He leans forward, gets on his toes, pulls back and then hits people with the right. I don’t know why people don’t look for it. I would throw a slow jab and trade right hands. Mine’s faster and if it lands first, I’m not getting knocked out, so let’s do it again.”

I don’t agree with Thurman that his right hand is faster than Mayweather’s. Thurman has fast hands, but he doesn’t have that kind of hand speed. Thurman’s hand speed is closer to that of Danny Garcia rather than Mayweather. Khan, Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao all have faster hands than Thurman in my view.

Mayweather can obviously be hurt, but it’s rare. It’s not easy to hurt him, and when his opponents try to hurt him, they leave themselves wide open for his counter shots or his lead right hand. We’ve certainly seen Thurman hurt in his fights against Diego Chaves and Jesus Soto Karass. Both of those guys had Thurman legitimately hurt in their fights with him.

“I saw Mayweather duck down against (Marcos) Maidana to his right, and when that happens he’s vulnerable to a half-left hook, half-uppercut,” Thurman said. “Not many people have gone to his body, at least not with my power and intensity.”

Thurman is too slow to be trying to throw body shots against a fighter like Mayweather. I wouldn’t recommend Thurman throwing body shots against anyone with hand speed and/or punching power. If Thurman lowers his head to go to the body against someone like Mayweather, Marcos Maidana or Shawn Porter, he’s going to get nailed with something.



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