Keith Thurman: Is he the real deal or not?

By Cameron - 06/22/2014 - Comments

thurman32222By Cameron Gillon: Keith “One Time” Thurman is an undefeated young fighter coming through the welterweight ranks and currently holds down the interim WBA welterweight title.

Thurman has won 23 fights with 21 coming by way of knockout, which is an outstanding knockout ratio. His most notable wins came against Jesus Soto Karass and Julio Diaz in his last two previous fights and he both knocked them out. Thurman certainly doesn’t lack confidence as we always see in his interviews, press conferences and post-fight interviews.

Thurman has very good power, and is one of the bigger punchers in the division. His KO’s say that, but is he really the future of the welterweights or will he fall short when he fights a big fighter in the region of Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez? Thurman hasn’t really fought a big enough fighter for him to get these fights just yet. However, he has said himself he knows exactly how to beat Mayweather. ‘How do you beat Floyd Mayweather? With power, baby; power and semi boxing’ that is what Thurman said after beating Diaz.

Thurman isn’t wrong in a way as everyone knows Floyd Mayweather struggles against people who come for him and cut the ring off, like Marcos Maidana showed us this last May. Apparently Keith Thurman was one of the fighters that Mayweather had short listed for his next fight along with three others in a Marcos Maidana rematch, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia. It won’t be Danny Garcia as he wants to fight in August, which looks a done deal. Shawn Porter is fighting Kell Brook for the IBF title in August, so it comes down to Maidana and Thurman, and I’m 100% sure that Maidana will get the rematch in September.

So where does this leave Keith Thurman? Does he go for a fight against Amir Khan, Robert Guerrero or Adrien Broner? If he could beat one of these three fighters, it would surely put Thurman in for a shot against Floyd Mayweather in 2015, but is Thurman the real deal like he says he is, or is he going to be beaten as soon as he moves up?



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