By Brian Webber: Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman will be coming off a long, long layoff to challenger WBA secondary welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis for his belt on December 9th on Showtime pay-per-view in Las Vegas. The card hasn’t been officially announced, but it’s expected to soon.
It will be interesting to see how much the former WBA/WBC 147-lb champion Thurman has left at 34 at this stage of his career.
Some fans might take issue with being asked to pay to watch Thurman make one of his rare appearances inside the ring, as he’s been so inactive over the last six years that he’s become forgotten by fans.
Keith Idec of Boxing Scene is reporting the news for the Stanionis vs. Thurman fight.
Does Thurman have anything left in the tank after yet another long layoff? In his last fight against Mario Barrios, his power was still there, but his speed and reflexes were nowhere near what they’d been back in 2017.
There will be a lot of curious long-time fans about Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) because he was one of the best welterweights on the planet before he let malaise set in, enjoying the millions that he’d made from his fights against Manny Pacquiao & Danny Garcia, and losing ambition.
A year and a half ago, Thurman came off a long 2.5-year layoff to beat Mario Barrios by a twelve round decision. in February 2022, but after that fight, Keith was only interested in a big-money title shot against Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford.
When both turned up their nose at the idea of fighting the inactive former champ, Thurman chose to sit and wait, hoping that a fight would fall into his lap. He could have fought Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis but didn’t want to take on the young phenom. In that respect, Thurman joined Spence & Crawford of not wanting to mix it up with the young talent.
Undercard
On the undercard, WBA regular middleweight champion Erislandy Lara will defend against former two-division world champ Danny Garcia. Also, on the card, super featherweight Chris Colbert (17-1, 6 KOs) will be fighting Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela (12-2, 8 KOs) in a rematch. Last March, Colbert defeated Valenzuela by a questionable ten round decision in Las Vegas.
“We got another event to announce for December. Floyd could be out there. That could be a possibility,” said Showtime president Stephen Espinoza to K.O. Artist Sports about the December fights.
“There are other fighters that need fights before the end of the year. Boots. I know Keith Thurman wants to get into a fight. Everybody wants to get in that welterweight action, so we got a busy end of the year, and then we start rolling all over again next year,” said Espinoza, making it clear that Showtime will still be around in 2024.
