By Rocky Esposito: I have watched and studied Boxing long enough to realize and practice a simple truth… Never make the mistake of anointing a Boxer as a ”Super Star” until he himself has earned it inside of the ring. Not to pick on him, because it is largely the Sports media’s fault for helping fuel the fire, but Adrian Broner is just the latest example of this. Here, you had a very young and gifted fighter become inpatient and unwisely place himself into a weight division that he clearly was not ready for.
Yet, there is another young 147lb fighter who will not arrogantly tell you how good he is, he will not post things on the internet just to get your attention. Nope, he’d rather just earn your respect inside of the ring. The man I am talking about is Keith ”One Time” Thurman.
Keith Thurman is a young and dynamic fighter. He is only 25 years old. He has a record of 22-0 and a knockout percentage of 86.96% 2013 was Keith’s coming out party. He was 3-0 on the year. First he beat (32-2) Jan Zaveck by a 12 Round Unanimous Decision. Keith pitched a complete shut out this fight. All three judges had the same identical score of 120-108. He then faced (22-0) Argentinian Diego Gabriel Chaves, who in his own right is a very talented fighter. The fight was a competitive one early on, but Keith took it to the next level in the 9th Round and knocked down Chaves. Chaves managed to get up, but Keith would finish him off in the very next round obtaining a 10th Round KO victory.
To finish off 2013, and ironically on the Broner vs Maidana undercard, Keith would fight the experienced, hard hitting veteran Jesus Soto Karass. Soto Karass was just coming off of his 12th Round TKO upset victory of Andre Berto. In the very first Round of his fight with Thurman, Soto Karass caught Thurman with a hard, over hand right that Thurman did not see coming. The punch initially stunned Keith, but he was able to shake it off fairly quickly and actually come back to win the round. Thurman would knock Soto Karass down in the 5th Round, and stop him in the 9th Round for a TKO victory. My only knock on Keith? He needs to keep his hands up more on defensive. But, that can easily be fixed. Also, he has only fought 78 professional rounds. He needs a little more experience. LOL, then again, its his Knock Outs that have shortened the fights. That means less wear and tear on his body, an actual good thing.
This year we will all find out if Keith Thurman can take it to that next level. *If, that is, people will fight him. A fight with Shawn Porter seemed certain and sounded great to many Boxing fans. But, Shawn’s father (and trainer) Kenny Porter recently said he does not want his son fighting Keith anytime soon. The way he sees it, he wants them to stay away from each other for the time being and then, eventually let them have a Mega Fight. I kind of agreed with Mr. Porter, but then he said the only other way that the fight could happen sooner was if they got paid a lot of $. Right then and there, I knew he was ducking Keith. And don’t get me wrong, I like Shawn Porter a lot. He is a tremendous talent. But, he will have to fight Keith sooner or later if he wants to reach that next level as well.
Comments are closed.