By Stanley White: Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) won’t be fighting former world champion Jessie Vargas in his tune-up fight on May 19th as rumored. Thurman, 28, is expected to defend his WBA/WBC welterweight titles against a weaker opponent that is less of a threat to beating him.
Thurman had elbow surgery last year after his 12 round win over Danny Garcia last March. He’s sitting out of the ring ever since then. The WBA and WBC has chosen not to strip Thurman of his titles for inactivity, although they would be doing themselves and the other top contenders a huge favor if they did do that.
Thurman is fighting part of a split site doubleheader on Showtime Boxing on May 19th. The other fight on the televised card is WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson defending against Badou Jack in Canada. Presumably, the Stevenson-Jack fight will be the main event on the televised Showtime card with Thurman being the co-feature.
Thurman’s fight on May 19th will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With Vargas (28-2, 10 KOs) now out of the picture due to him being too tough of an opponent for Thurman’s voluntary defense, it begs the question of how soft will ‘One Time’ Thurman’s opponent be. In theory, Thurman should have to defend against at least a top 15 contender in the WBA or WBC’s rankings.
Thurman is fighting in the main event on his card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The boxing fans that turn out to see Thurman fight live will be expecting a quality opponent and not someone dragged in from the lower ranks for him to beat up. For a voluntary defense/tune-up level fight, Thurman must still fight a quality opponent. If Thurman can’t do that as a champion, then he probably should vacate his two titles and let healthier fighters fight for his belts.
The options for Thurman’s May 19th will likely come down to these recognizable – but highly beatable contenders:
• Jamal James
• David Avanesyan
• Konstantin Ponomarev
• Adrian Granados
• Fabrian Maidana
Out of all of those fighters, former WBA World welterweight champion Avanaesyan (23-2-1, 11 KOs) is my pick for Thurman’s next fight. The 29-year-old Avanesyan can’t punch, and he’s not that fast either. He was beaten by Lamont Peterson last year by a 12 round unanimous decision in February 2017. Avanesyan had a close 12 round decision win over Shane Mosley in May 2016. Avanesyan did enough to get the win, but it was still fairly close.
Jessie Vargas was hoping to get the fight with Thurman, but he was ruled out for the contest.
“2017 was a great year,” said Thurman, 29. “Unifying the WBA and the WBC titles was a dream come true. Since then, we had the elbow surgery but 2018 is a get-back year,” Thurman said.
As a world champion, you’re not supposed to be taking it easy and devoting an entire year as “get-back yearn,” as Thurman states. Thurman fought only 1 time in 2016 and 2017. If Thurman is going to devote years at a time to a “get back,” it might be time for the sanctioning bodies to strip him of his titles, so he can heal up and take soft fights without holding the WBA and WBC 147 lb. titles hostage.