By Jim Dower: Interim WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (24-0, 21 KOs) has created a lot of fuss about himself by talking about himself as if he were a knockout artist capable of stopping anyone in the 147 pound division.
Thurman was able to do this because he was knocking out the mostly weak opposition that his adviser has been putting him in the ring with. But recently we saw Thurman running from the light hitting 40-year-old Leonard Bundu last December while in the process of beating him by a 12 round decision.
Thurman’s performance didn’t look like a fighter with a fearsome nickname like “One Time”, but rather someone with a nickname like “Run Time.” It wasn’t impressive stuff from Thurman, who appeared to run more in the Bundu fight than Erislandy Lara did in his recent fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Lara wound up losing the fight due to his constant movement, which probably didn’t help win him any fans.
Thurman took a lot of criticism from boxing fans for the way he ran from Bundu, and the reason behind this was because of all the talk that Thurman had been doing about knocking people out. Thurman can defuse the criticism if he simply changes the way he talks about his opponents. He also would do well to change his nickname to something else other than “One Time,” because that’s the kind of nickname that you see from fighters with one punch power.
Thurman doesn’t have one punch power, and he doesn’t have the fighting style to be seen as a knockout artist. If you want to be seen as a knockout artist, you either have to possess the power or the mentality to be a fighter of that kind. In looking at the way Thurman constantly backs up when his opponents look to exchange with him, I don’t see him as a knockout artist.
Thurman has done a good job of talking himself up to impress upon fans that he’s going to be scoring knockouts, but he’s done this while facing mostly poor opposition. It might be better for Thurman to change his approach to how he talks himself up when being interviewed.
Instead of talking knockouts all the time, Thurman should talk more about out-boxing his opponents the way Floyd Mayweather Jr does. Thurman may not get as many boxing fans excited with that kind of talk, but at least the talk would match the way he fights when facing good opposition. There’s no sense in Thurman talking about himself as a knockout artist if he’s going to run when put in with a good opponent.
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