By Jeff Aranow: Trainer Abel Sanchez says he thinks WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia takes the unification fight against WBA champion Keith “One Time” Thurman on March 4. The two fighters are now a little over a month away from their big fight on Showtime Championship Boxing on CBS rom the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Sanchez says he wasn’t impressed with Thurman’s past fights against Luis Collazo and Diego Chaves. Thurman was hurt in both of those fights. He also barely beat Shawn Porter last year in a grueling 12 round fight in which Thurman had to use a lot of movement to keep from getting chopped down.
It was fortunate for Thurman that Porter wasn’t able to stay close to him as much as he needed to, because he might have won the fight if he’d put a little more pressure on him. Thurman used his circle fighting to escape the pressure.
Nonetheless, Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) is viewed as the favorite to win the fight by many boxing fans and by the odds-makers. Garcia is an upstart at 147, and hasn’t looked good in two of his fights in this weight class against Lamont Peterson and Robert Guerrero. Garcia’s lack of size for the division could hurt him in the Thurman fight. Thurman, 5’7”, isn’t a tall welterweight, but he’s heavy in terms of the weight.
“I don’t really think that much of Thurman,” said Sanchez to Fighthub.com. “Honestly I’ve never thought that much of Thurman. I think that Danny Garcia is the better fighter, maybe the smaller fighter, but I see Danny winning – in spite of his father. [Luis] Collazo, a couple other fights, Diego Chaves, that I saw Thurman, I wasn’t impressed by him. This ‘One Time’ Thurman thing is a myth. So, I see Danny winning.”
Garcia does have a lot of ring intelligence and boxing skills going for him. He’s always found a way to win in the past. With all the time that he and his trainer Angel Garcia have to analyze Thurman’s style, they’re going to come up with a strategy to nullify a lot of what he does.
They know that Thurman likes to come forward and throw single shots and then go into the retreat mode immediately. One way that Garcia can take advantage of this is by timing Thurman and hitting him with left hooks when he comes forward. Thurman gets hurt. Collazo hurt him with a body shot, and Diego Chavez and Jesus Soto Karass both hurt him with head shots. If those guys were able to hurt Thurman, then Garcia has a good chance of doing it as well. He’s a bigger puncher than them.
The winner of the Garcia-Thurman fight will either be facing Amir Khan next or possibly the winner of the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. fight if that fight takes place. There’s going to be a unified champion in 2017. The one title that will likely stay out of play for the winner of the Garcia vs. Thurman fight is the WBO belt, which is currently held by the Top Rank promoted Manny Pacquiao. It’s possible that Pacquiao will eventually lose the title to another Top Rank fighter, and the WBO belt will stay within that company.