Keith Thurman

By Dan Ambrose: #2 WBO, #3 WBA, #9 IBF junior middleweight contender Keith Thurman (19-0, 18 KO’s) has recently seen his world ranking soar after beating Carlos Quintana last November by a 4th round knockout in Ontario, California. The win was impressive in that Quintana had never been bludgeoned like that before during his career.

Quintana had been knocked out by Miguel Cotto and Paul Williams in the past, but he’d never been dominated the way that Thurman did it. Quintana looked terrified the entire time that Thurman stalked him around the ring, hitting him with huge shots that clearly bothered Quintana.

By Dan Ambrose: #2 WBO, #3 WBA, #9 IBF, junior middleweight contender Keith Thurman (19-0, 18 KO’s) is waiting to find out who his opponent will be for his scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins vs. Tavoris Cloud at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The 24-year-old Thurman’s 4th round destruction of former WBO welterweight champion Carlos Quintana last November really pushed Thurman up the junior middleweight rankings to where he’s now nearing title shots against 154 pound champions Austin Trout, Zaurbek Baysangurov and Cornelius Bundrage. Thurman is one of the biggest punchers and most exciting fighters in the junior middleweight division right now. I think he’s good enough to beat Saul Alvarez and most of the other champions at this weight.

By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten junior middleweight prospect Keith Thurman (19-0, 18 KO’s) has been selected by RingTV.com as the prospect of the year for 2012 for his wins over Carlos Quintana, Orlando Lora, Brandon Hoskins and Christopher Fernandez. Thurman, 24, has looked good as of late, knocking out his last eight opponents dating back to November 2009. His knockout of Quintana was especially impressive, as he took him out in only four rounds.

The one drawback to Thurman’s game is his lack of skills. He seems to load up on everything he throws, and doesn’t seem to show a lot of other things you’d like to see in a fighter like a good jab, speed, varying his power, moving his head, blocking punching. When Thurman eventually faces someone that can handle his power, he’s going to have problems, especially if his opponent also has good power.

By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten Keith Thurman (19-0, 18 KO’s) made Carlos Quintana (29-4, 23 KO’s) look really bad in losing to Thurman by a 4th round TKO on the Andre Berto vs. Robert Guerrero card in Ontario, California. The win by the 5’11” Thurman showed not only his raw power, which is quite top notch, but also poise and maturity that few fighters his age have.

Thurman looks ready to take on WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Vanes Martirosyan, Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara and Cornelius Bundrage. I can see Thurman giving all of those guys a real run for their money with his power. Alvarez, 5’9″, isn’t a very big junior middleweight and I think Thurman would give him some problems with his height, reach and power. The same goes for the 5’7″ Cotto. He’s a lot smaller than Thurman, and he tends to break down when he gets in wars with strong fighters. Thurman might be too big and power for the likes of Cotto.