By Dan Ambrose: All the talking that Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman has been doing in the last month in hopes of landing a big-money fight against Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr is falling on deaf ears because it’s a waste of time.
IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) told Barbershop Conversations that he “can’t stand” Thurman (29-1, 22 KOs), and that’s not going to fight him.
Spence is still angry about being frozen out of a fight with Thurman five years ago when he asked for a title shot against him and was being told to wait his turn.
Things are much different now with Spence being the champion, and Thurman is practically begging for a title shot against him.
Thurman can’t force Spence to fight him by going the mandatory route, as Errol says he will be moving up to 154 after two more fights, one of them being against Manny Pacquiao on August 21st.
If Spence beats Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs), he’s going to target WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford to take the last remaining belt to add to his collection to become the undisputed champion at 147.
If Thurman wants a title shot, Spence suggests that he look in the direction of WBA champ Yordenis Ugas. Last weekend, Thurman went into a long rundown on why he chose not to
“I don’t pay attention to it. He can fight [Yordenis] Ugas,” said Spence to Barbershop Conversations about Thurman sounding needy for a fight against him. “He ain’t going to get a fight with me. It’s just how he is. He’s just a cornball to me. I just can’t stand him,” said Spence.
Interestingly, to show how desperate Thurman is to get a fight against Spence, he says he might follow him to 154. However, it sounds like a waste of time if the smallish 5’7″ Thurman does make that move because Spence sounds adamant about not wanting anything to do with him.
From Thurman’s perspective, his options are lousy for big money fights at 147. Pacquiao isn’t going to fight again after beating him like a drum in their fight two years ago in 2019.
Thurman has been asking for a rematch with the Filipino star for the last two years, and he’s had no luck. Once you remove Pacquiao and Spence from the equation, Thurman’s only options for good – but not great – paydays are against these guys:
- Shawn Porter
- Danny Garcia
- Terence Crawford
- Mikey Garcia
If the rumors are true about Thurman possibly fighting Porter next, that’ll give ‘One Time’ a nice payday, albeit a dangerous one that involves a ton of risk.
With Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum not wanting to take financial risks involving his fighter, Thurman likely won’t get a fight against him either. Arum is playing it conservatively with Crawford after recently complaining about losing money on his fights.
Mikey Garcia and Danny Garcia are excellent options for Thurman, and that might be as good as it gets for him at 147.
The young guns, Vergil Ortiz Jr, Jaron Ennis, and Conor Benn, aren’t big enough names for Thurman to make money fighting them.
Moreover, they would likely beat him, so he’s probably not going to want to face any of them for that reason.