Thurman hopes KO win over Garcia makes him new face at 147

By Boxing News - 01/22/2017 - Comments

Image: Thurman hopes KO win over Garcia makes him new face at 147

By Dan Ambrose: WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman is counting on a knocking out WBC champion Danny Garcia in a spectacular fashion on March 4, possibly with a single punch. Thurman believes that a sensational knockout of Garcia will not only move him to the No.5 spot in the pound-for-pound rankings, but also make him the No.1 welterweight in the division.

Thurman sees a spectacular win over Garcia as making him the “new face” in the 147lb division. It would make Thurman the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. There hasn’t been a replacement for Mayweather as of yet, because no one in the welterweight division has stepped forward to claim the spot by beating a top guy that the boxing fans respect.

(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME)

Whether a win for Thurman over the 28-year-old Garcia is an important enough win to convince the boxing fans that he’s the new No.1 is the big question. Garcia might not be seen as talented enough for Thurman to vault to the top of the 147lb division and be seen as the number 1 guy, even though he’ll hold two of the four titles in the welterweight division.

Thurman said this to Fighthype.com about wanting to make a statement against Garcia:

“You can expect a great boxing match,” said Thurman about his March 4 fight against Garcia. “I’m going to showcase all my skills, and I’m going to try and expose Danny Garcia. Many fighters have shown tht Danny Garcia can be out-boxed a little bit. Lamont Peterson painted his face up, and made him look really bad. But even though he was able to land a lot of punches and do damage to him, he never created a knockdown and he started too late in the fight. My goal is to make sure the fighter that falls short is Danny Garcia on March 4. That’s one of the reasons why we don’t want it to be a decision. 27-0 with 22 knockouts; There’s been 22 occasions where the judges weren’t necessary. I would like there to be 23 come March 4th. We want to make a big statement in defeating Danny Garcia. With a really spectacular one-punch knockout, I’d go mid-5 [in pound-for-pound ratings],” said Thurman.

Garcia looked really bad in his fights against Lamont Peterson and Robert Guerrero. Garcia won both of those fights, but they were competitive and very close. Garcia isn’t a good enough fighter at welterweight for Thurman to get much credit if he beats him. I don’t think it matters how spectacular Thurman wins the fight. Garcia doesn’t look good enough since moving up to 147 from the 140lb division for Thurman to be viewed as the man in the welterweight division if he beats him. I think Thurman will need to still beat Errol Spence, Kell Brook, and/or Manny Pacquiao for him to take the overall top spot. Thurman also might need to fight Shawn Porter a second time to prove that he’s the clear better fighter than him, because their fight last July was too close for Thurman to have moved on without facing him again. Thurman beat Porter by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113. Those scores are too close for Thurman to be seen as the No.1 fighter at 147. His position is too shaky no matter what happens in his fight against Garcia.

Thurman needs to go back and try and show that he can beat Porter in a more conclusive manner. It’s more likely that Spence will eventually take the top spot in the welterweight division instead of Thurman. Once Spence gets Thurman into the ring, I think he’ll knock him out and take the No.1 spot with that win. Pacquiao is probably too old to grab the No.1 position at 147. Besides that, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum doesn’t seem interested in matching him against the best fighters at 147. Arum seems to be taking Pacquiao on a cash out run with easy fights for decent but not great paydays.

“Somebody on March 4th is going to be the unified champion, and they’re going to set themselves apart from the other champions in the welterweight division, and hopefully become the new face of 147,” said Garcia. “That’s what I’m longing for. I was able to hurt Shawn Porter with a single shot, but I was unable to follow up with anything. I know I can hurt anybody I step into the ring with. So I’m mentally preparing myself to land that one, and then the next one if I need to. What’s really going to be a statement is when I knock Danny Garcia out. It’s the biggest statement I can make,” said Thurman

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