by James Le Blanc: Keith “One Time” Thurman (19-0, 18 KO’s) has an opportunity yet again on HBO this weekend to win over some fans as well as gain some more respect from top fighters in the welterweight division. Some say Keith is overrated and clever match making has put Thurman in the position to score most of his fights by KO. It appears as though HBO and Golden Boy Promotions are shoving an unproven Thurman down our throats like they did Andre Berto, who has proven to be far from elite, losing 2 of his last 3 fights and being dropped 4 times altogether.
Thurman was criticized last year for calling out the likes of Floyd Mayweather, Paulie mMlignaggi, and Timothy Bradley all belt holders in the Welterweight division. But here are a few things that you may not know about Thurman.
Keith fights out of Florida’s St. Pete Boxing club, home of former champions Winky Wright, and Jeff Lacy whom Thurman has had the honor to spar with. Other sparring partners on Thurman’s resume include Antonio Tarver, Andre Berto (Rumor is he knocked Berto out cold) and heavy weight Lenroy Thomas. Name another welterweight that spars with heavyweights. At 5’11 Thurman towers over most welterweights and has a higher KO percentage than any Welterweight titlist today. This doesn’t sound like an unproven fighter to me. While his major accomplishments in the ring are yet to come, Thurman has the chance to become Timothy Bradley’s mandatory challenger upon beating the former IBF champion Jan Zaveck this Saturday.
With Bradley being promoted by Bob Arum there’s no telling if he allows this fight to take place. The Golden Boy and Top Rank feud is most certainly going to prevent this fight from happening but having beaten a former champ this Saturday I suspect Thurman enters the top 10 welterweight rankings and could easily end up facing Paulli Malignaggi or Devon Alexander, two fighters that I don’t see holding their belts for very long anyway.
Thurman is not only a heavy hitter, he’s a poised experiences boxer and I saw this when I watched him patiently get Quintana out of there in his last fight. There’s definitely something more to this kid than an overhyped non-proven fighter and this weekend can definitely convince a lot of the non-believers. I’m all in with this kid and foresee him holding a belt very soon….like this year soon.
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