By Scott Gilfoid: After beating Luis Collazo (36-7, 19 KOs) last Saturday night at the USF Sundome Arena in Tampa, Florida and narrowly avoiding being knocked out himself in the process, WBA World welterweight champion Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) says he wants to face the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shawn Porter, Amir Khan, Manny Pacquiao, Tim Bradley or Marcos Maidana.
Thurman feels he’s ready for all those guys and he says he’s willing to put his unbeaten record on the line against them if possible.
Thurman was hurt in the 5th round by a left hook to the body from Collazo. It was fortunate for Thurman that he was hurt at the end of the round, because he only had to run for the last 20+ seconds before the round was over.
It still looked really bad with Thurman taking punishment and dashing around the ring to avoid getting knocked out by an aging 34-year-old fighter who was a tremendous underdog in this fight.
“I’m looking to continue this incredible streak. I’m 26-0. If you can beat me then beat me,” Thurman said via Fightnews.com. “We want anybody that we can get at the top of the welterweight division; Mayweather, Pacquiao, Porter, Khan, Bradley, Maidana. Thank you so much to Tampa Bay, St. Pete and all my home fans here in Florida. I’m going to continue to do you all proud.”
Thurman doesn’t make his fights, so it pretty much doesn’t matter which names he mentions. Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are names that Thurman probably has no chance of fighting, not off of this performance. Marcos Maidana might not be back in 2015, according to his trainer Robert Garcia. Maidana gained a lot of weight since his last fight against Mayweather last September, and it’s possible that he won’t be back inside the ring until 2016. Shawn Porter and Kell Brook might be interested in facing Thurman.
It’ll have to make sense financially for Porter to take the fight. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn might not be willing to match Brook against Porter though. Thurman’s name hasn’t been mentioned by Hearn a lot in the past when discussing opponents for Brook. It’s likely that he won’t do the fight until Thurman becomes a bigger name because the fight between them wouldn’t be a big enough money right now for it to be worth the risk. I don’t see a fight between Brook and Thurman being any bigger than Brook vs. Brandon Rios, which might not happen due to the rematch clause that Brook wants in case he loses the fight.
Tim Bradley fights for Top Rank, so that probably will make it all but impossible for Thurman to fight him unless Thurman’s adviser Al Haymon can work with them to put the fight together. I wish it would happen, but I don’t think it will.
I can’t see Khan agreeing to a fight against Thurman, and I doubt that their mutual adviser Al Haymon will make the fight. It’s better to keep them going in different lanes so that one of them doesn’t see their career imploded after a loss if they were to fight.
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