(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) By Jim Dower: Interim WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (23-0, 21 KOs) is targeting a fight against unbeaten pound-for-pound fighter Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) in 2015. Thurman, 26, knows that this could be his last chance at getting a fight against the 37-year-old Mayweather due to him heading towards retirement.
Thurman feels that if he can beat someone like Marcos Maidana in an impressive fashion on his first try, then it would be enough for him to get a fight against Mayweather in 2015.
This Saturday, Thurman will be fighting undefeated 40-year-old Leonard Bundu (31-0-1, 11 KOs) in a highly visible fight card on Showtime from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Thurman’s fight against Bundu will be seen by a lot of boxing fans, as the fight is on the undercard of Amir Khan’s bout against Devon Alexander. It’s the perfect opportunity for Thurman to show that he deserves or at least should be one of the fighters mentioned in terms of the Mayweather sweepstakes.
“I want Mayweather. I want the top dog. He’s getting old and I want to fight him before he retires,“ Thurman said via RingTV.com “Mayweather’s on his final lap, I think we all know that… Floyd is in the mix in 2015 because I don’t know if he’ll be fighting after next year…he’s got two fights left (on the Showtime contract) and only God knows if he’ll fight again after those two fights.”
If Mayweather does fight beyond his current contract with Showtime, it will likely be for one fight in order for him to get to the 50-0 mark that he’s talked about wanting to achieve before he retires. The question is will Mayweather be motivated to face Thurman with one of his remaining fights.
Thurman hasn’t helped himself by failing to face high caliber welterweights. He’s still fighting guys like Bundu, Julio Diaz and Jesus Soto-Karass, and those aren’t good enough fighters for Thurman to put any kind of pressure on Mayweather.
For Thurman to apply pressure on Mayweather to fight him, he needs to be facing the likes of Devon Alexander, Khan, Kell Brook, Ruslan Provodnikov, Lucas Matthysse, Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Tim Bradley, Maidana, Robert Guerrero, Juan Manuel Marquez and Shawn Porter.
Fighting those guys would help Thurman’s status in a huge way to try and get a fight against Mayweather. Unfortunately for Thurman, it’s going to be tough for him to get any of those fighters to agree to fight him due to him still not having a big name and because of the threat that he possesses.
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