By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated welterweight Keith Thurman (20-0, 18 KO’s) will be getting a chance to show if he’s for real or not against Diego Chaves (22-0, 18 KO’s) on July 27th from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
The WBA interim World welterweight title will be on the line for the winner and Showtime will be televising the fight in the United States. This will be the 24-year-old Thurman’s big chance to show that he belongs among the top fighters at 147. He’s called out the likes of Paulie Malignaggi, Tim Bradley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the past, to name a few, but he didn’t have the resume to show that he belonged with those guys in the ring.
Now if Thurman can beat Chaves, a good fighter with excellent power, then Thurman should be considered to be right up there with the other top fighters at 147. That’s not to say he’ll get fights against any of them, because it’s not likely that Bradley, Mayweather or Malignaggi would ever say yes to a fight against Thurman.
That’s probably not going to happen. But what it does mean is that Thurman will be in the position to get a shot against the WBA welterweight champion, and that’s currently Adrien Broner. Thurman wants that fight, and with a win over Chaves, he’ll be in the position to get a shot at the WBA title in the future once Broner makes a decision about what he’s going to do with the belt.
Chaves has been knocking everyone out as of late for the past two years. The last time he had to go the full distance was in 2011. It’s not by accident that he’s destroying everyone. The guy can really punch and if you stand in front of him, he’s going to make it difficult for you.
Thurman can punch too, but he’s got more to his game than Chaves does. He can box when he wants to and he’s not bad defensively. We could see him using his boxing skills to move around the ring and avoid getting hit by Chaves’ best punches on July 27th.
Thurman isn’t a dumb fighter, and if he starts getting hit with some solid blows from Chaves, he’s going to start boxing and look to catch the Argentinian coming in with left hooks.
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