Thurman wants Errol Spence Jr. match to be mega-fight

By Boxing News - 01/19/2017 - Comments

Image: Thurman wants Errol Spence Jr. match to be mega-fight

By Dan Ambrose: WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) says before he faces unbeaten Errol Spence Jr. (21-0, 18 KOs) in the future, he wants the fight to be built up by the media to the point where it’s a mega-fight rather than a normal fight.

Thurman points out that Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn’t agree to fight Manny Pacquiao when the boxing public wanted him to. He waited until he was ready to make that fight happen before he finally agreed to do it.

Thurman thinks that the fans and media should keep building up the Spence fight to make it really big. He’ll then fight him. Of course, what Thurman isn’t saying is he might get beaten long before it gets to the point of him fighting Spence. Thurman almost lost his last fight to Shawn Porter, and he may lose his March 4 unification match against WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia. Thurman, 5’7”, might not have the size, the chin or the ability to take body shots to be counted on to hold down his WBA title for any length of time. He’s not another Mayweather. Thurman gets hit, and he gets hurt.

Speaking of Mayweather, he thinks Thurman is ducking Spence, and he doesn’t understand why he doesn’t take the fight with him. Mayweather offered Thurman the Spence fight two years ago, but he didn’t want to face him.

Thurman said this to fighthype.com about his thoughts on a fight against Spence:

“I’m tired of being asked that [expletive] question,” said Thurman. “The way that Floyd is talking about Thurman ducking Spence, four years ago everyone ducked me. Keep talking about it. I’m willing to fight everybody. If that’s a mega-fight, then let it be a mega-fight. I only have one career. Yes, you should build it up. Mayweather built up the Pacquiao fight. You can keep talking about it. We can build it up. I have no problem fighting Errol Spence. If we get through Errol Spence, they’re going to say he wasn’t ready too. So there’s no pro in that. I got mad respect for him. I know he’s young. I know he’s hungry. I know he’s ready. Floyd didn’t fight Pacquiao when people said he should fight Manny Pacquiao. Did Floyd fight Sugar Shane Mosley when people said he should fight Sugar Shane. I would love that fight,” said Thurman.

Thurman seems to be comparing himself to Mayweather, but he doesn’t have that kind of background. Mayweather fought in the Olympics for the U.S and probably should have won a gold medal. Mayweather is a former five division world champion. Thurman never fought in the Olympics, and he’s only won a world title at welterweight. He doesn’t have the same background Mayweather has going for him.

“I wonder why Keith Thurman keeps ducking Errol Spence,” said Mayweather to Fighthype.com. “Everybody is ducking Errol Spence.”

The fact that Thurman was willing to fight guys that were out of his league like Luis Collazo and Robert Guerrero, it suggests to this writer that he’s ducking the Spence fight due to the danger involved. I don’t believe that Thurman is waiting for it to become a mega-fight before he’ll agree to fight Spence. I think he realizes what a loss to Spence can do his boxing career. We saw how easily Spence destroyed Leonard Bundu and Chris Algieri. No one had ever done that to either of these guys. That could have been Thurman being destroyed by Spence.