Thurman: I believe I’m in the Mayweather conversation

By Boxing News - 07/06/2015 - Comments

thurman32222By Dan Ambrose: WBA World welterweight champion Keith Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) believes he’s one of the names that are being looked over for Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next fight on September 12th. Thurman thinks that if he looks real good against 2nd tier fighter Luis Collazo (36-6, 19 KOs) this Saturday night on ESPN, then Mayweather might pick him out for the fight.

Thurman doesn’t say why he agreed to fight the 34-year-old Collazo rather than a top 15 contender, because Thurman already had two easy fights in a row against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and Leonard Bundu. After those two fights, Thurman should have stepped it up against much better competition instead of taking his career backwards against Collazo.

I think Thurman is kidding himself if he really thinks he’s in on the Mayweather lottery. He’s clearly not. Thurman is being matched up more like a lower level contender rather than a world champion, and that’s obviously keeping him from becoming popular enough to get the bigger money fights.

Instead of fighting Collazo, Bundu and Guerrero, Thurman should have been fighting guys like Shawn Porter, Marcos Maidana, Kell Brook, Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia, and Errol Spence. Thurman is taking it way too easy with his poor opposition.

A fight against Collazo would have been fine if this was 2008 when Collazo was relevant, but not now that Collazo is no longer one of the top guys. He’s not ranked in the top 15. Thurman might as well be dragging Matthew and Ricky Hatton out of retirement, because those are guys from Collazo’s bygone era.

“I believe I am currently already in the conversation. I believe the way that I perform could elevate the topic more,” Thurman said via Thaboxingvoice.com. “It’s interesting. Floyd has — to me, for the most part — kept his mouth shut on who he wants to fight next and what’s going to happen in September. So maybe he is looking to see what’s going on in the welterweight division and which fighter in the Top 10 he is truly willing to fight.”

I’d be very, very surprised if Thurman was in the Mayweather equation, because he’s so unproven at this point in his career. With the poor opposition that Thurman has been facing, boxing fans don’t know if he’s a hype job or the real thing. He calls himself “One Time,” and yet he’s not knocking guys out anymore.

Thurman would have more fans and more knockouts if he fought like Gennady Golovkin by staying in the pocket and taking shots so that he can KO his opponents. But instead of making his fights exciting, Thurman backs away each time his opponents come after him, and it looks really odd because he’s always the puncher in his fights. The puncher isn’t supposed to run from his opponents.

Thurman doesn’t get matched against other punchers, at least not yet. He doesn’t want to fight Errol Spence, who arguably is the best puncher in the welterweight division right now.

“I would love a fight against Mayweather and have been talking about it for a few years now,” Thurman said. “He is the king, and I say that every king has his day. I’d like him to come see me one time.”

Thurman is too far behind Mayweather in career development to get a fight against him. If Thurman had started fighting quality opposition a year years ago instead of the guys he’s been facing, then maybe Mayweather would show some interest in fighting him. But right now, Thurman is too much of an unknown to get a Mayweather fight.



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