By Jack Tiernan: Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman has started training for his WBC-ordered fight against IBF, WBA & WBC welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence.
We still haven’t heard an announcement from Premier Boxing Champions about the Spence vs. Thurman fight, but, likely, it’s still in negotiations.
The movement that Thurman uses will take away Spence’s body attack, forcing him to try and win by using his jab, which isn’t a weapon that he normally relies on to win his fights.
Spence’s primary method for victory is his body attack, but that won’t be available against the fleet of foot Thurman because he won’t stand in front of him, waiting to get hit.
Like in all his fights, Thurman will promote himself and build interest by giving nonstop interviews with superb soundbites. Spence won’t have to do much other than stay out of Thurman’s way to let him do all the promoting because he’s not a match to ‘One Time’ regarding marketing fights.
Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) can’t afford to be grudge-holding & childish if he wants to stay active and likely pick up his most significant career payday against the former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) in the first quarter of next year.
With the World Boxing Council ordering the fight, if Spence does not defend against his mandatory Thurman, he’ll have to give up the belt because he can’t swerve it by fighting WBO champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford because he’s not available.
Moreover, it would take ages to negotiate a fight with Crawford, and the WBC won’t let Spence put Thurman on hold without ripping the belt from him for failing to agree to the title defense.
Crawford is reportedly getting eight figures [$10 million+] for his December 10th title defense against the capable David Avanesyan on BLK Prime pay-per-view.
For Spence to get that kind of money, he will need to forget about his past hurts about being ignored by Thurman and take the fight. After all, boxing is a sport, and you can’t ignore ordered fights.
If Spence chooses not to defend against Thurman, he’ll have to give up his WBC belt. In that case, ‘One Time’ will face the next highest-ranked available contender for the vacant WBC strap from one of these contenders:
2. Vergil Ortiz Jr
3. Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
4. Yordenis Ugas
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