Keith Thurman vs. Danny Garcia possible for early 2017

By Boxing News - 07/28/2016 - Comments

Keith Thurman

By Eric Baldwin: Showtime vice president of sports Stephen Espinoza is hoping to put together a unification fight between unbeaten welterweight champions Danny Garcia and Keith “One Time’ Thurman for early 2017. Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) and Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) are both reportedly on board for the fight, according to Ring TV.

Thurman, 27, may have to defend his WBA welterweight title against his #1 WBA mandatory challenger David Avanesyan before he can meet up with Garcia. The World Boxing Association has already ordered negotiations to take place between Thurman and Avanesyan.

Garcia is expected to defend his WBC title against former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto in September or October. If Garcia and Thurman win their next fights, then the two of them could face each other in the first quarter of next year.

“More than anything, Danny and Keith are trying to make that fight happen,” Espinoza said to RingTV.com. “Really, the key to making a fight quickly is when both of them want the fight and they’re both focused on it. I think it sort of feels like the natural fight to happen as quickly as possible.”

Garcia vs. Thurman will be a good fight if it actually comes off. However, there’s still a lot of hurdles that would need to be jumped over before this fight takes place. Garcia’s father Angel Garcia would need to give hi blessing for it to take place, and it remains to be seen whether he would be agreeable to this kind of fight.

Up until now, Garcia has been the favorite in virtually every fight of his career. The one exception was his fight two years ago against Lucas Matthysse, and that was more of a 50-50 affair. Garcia would likely be the underdog against the big punching Thurman, because he’s arguably the harder puncher of the two with the better hand speed. Thurman, 5’7”, is a little shorter than the 5’8 1/2” Garcia, but he’s the heavier of the two after he rehydrates.

Espinosa believes there’s a possibility that Thurman might not fight for the remainder of 2016 due to cuts he sustained in his tough fight against Shawn Porter last June. Thurman won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113. It was easily the toughest fight of Thurman’s career. it might be better for Thurman to take it easy for a while before he gets inside the ring with Garcia, because this would be a difficult fight for Thurman to take with him coming off the Porter fight. Never the less, if Thurman does fight again in 2016, then it’s likely that he’ll need to defend against Avanesyan first.