By Dan Ambrose: Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman has shaken off a lot of the cobwebs in training for his fight against Manny Pacquiao next month on July 20 on Fox Sports Pay-Per-View at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada.
WBA Super World welterweight champion Thurman (29-0, 22 KOs) posted a short training video clip of himself on his social media site on Wednesday, and he looks 100% better than he’d been last month in training. However, Thurman’s hand speed still isn’t at the level that it once was before his two-year layoff from 2017 to 2019.
Thurman looked slow, sluggish and fat a month ago, but he’s made progress. The weight is coming off Thurman, and he’s a bit more snap in his shots. He’s not as powerful or as fast as the 40-year-old Pacquiao though, so he’s got some work to do.
Hit em with dat #OneTime 👊🏽💥 pic.twitter.com/E2BmOEhA4Q
— Keith Thurman Jr. (@keithfthurmanjr) June 11, 2019
The last stoppage win for the 30-year-old Thurman came four years ago against Luis Collazo in 2015. Given the difficulty that Thurman has had in trying to knock guys out, his nickname, ‘One Time,’ should be changed. Some fighters change their nicknames as they get older. Floyd Mayweather Jr. went from ‘Pretty Boy’ to ‘Money’ Mayweather. Thurman should consider changing his nickname, because he takes a lot of heat for his inability to knock guys out.
Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) will need to stay out of the way of Thurman’s big shots in this fight. Thurman wants to send Pacquiao into retirement on July 20. That’s all he’s been talking about in the news conferences. Thurman wants to be the guy that has his name attached to sending the former eight division world champion into retirement. Not surprisingly, Pacquiao doesn’t like the way that Thurman has been talking about him, and he wants to teach him a lesson. Thurman may be slower than before, but he’s got a decent amount of power. Pacquiao isn’t a natural welterweight, and that puts him more at risk to Thurman’s hard shots.
A lot of boxing fans are looking forward to the Pacquiao vs. Thurman clash next month. The card isn’t so great, but event is a good one at least. The undercard has IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant defending against bottom fringe contender Mike Lee, who has been pooled from the 175 pound weight class for this fight. Plant’s management have chosen not to match him against one of the super middleweight contenders for some reason.
It’s anyone’s guess why they’ve decided on Lee, as he has no experience against contenders, and he’s done nothing to deserve a world title shot. Not surprisingly, there’s not a whole lot of interest from the boxing public in the Plant vs. Lee fight. It’s not a fight that will do much for attracting boxing fan to purchase the Pacquiao vs. Thurman card on Fox Sports PPV. If fans are going to purchase the card, they’ll be doing it to see the main event, because the undercard is underwhelming.