WBC interim junior middleweight contender Brian Mendoza expects Tim Tszyu to use body shots to defeat the aging, inactive former welterweight champion Keith Thurman on March 30th in their headliner on Amazon Prime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Mendoza says the 35-year-old Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) is weak to the body, and Tszyu (24-0, 17 KOs) is “consistent” at targeting that area in his fights. In Tszyu’s fight against Mendoza last October, he threw many body shots, weakening him.
Thurman is fighting for the first time since his win over Mario Barrios in February 2022, and he’s never competed at 154. Given his inactivity, there are some serious questions about whether Thurman will be up to the task of competing against Tszyu.
Thurman’s Vulnerability
“Thurman is weaker to the body. He’s a vet, so he knows how to get by with it,” Brian Mendoza told Fighthype about Keith Thurman’s weakness going into his fight against Tim Tszyu on March 30th.
‘One Time’ Thurman was hurt by body shots by 40-year-old Manny Pacquiao and Luis Collazo. Those fights highlighted Keith’s weakness, and those were matches in which he mainly dealt with punches upstairs.
Thurman has veteran tricks that he knows how to use to avoid being stopped by a body shot.
If he gets hurt by Tszyu, he’ll likely spit out his mouthpiece to buy time to recover. In Thurman’s fight against Pacquiao, he got on his bike after being hurt to the body to survive the round, but he still wound up losing.
Tszyu’s Strengths
“Tszyu is very consistent to the body. He’s always trying to break you down. I see him breaking him [Thurman] down with a lot of body work. Tszyu is a break you down more than get you out of there with one shot, but his body work is nice,” said Mendoza.
