.jpg)
LAS VEGAS – Keith Thurman wants to be an active fighter in 2022, even if that means fighting three times during this calendar year. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
That would amount to a complete change in activity for Thurman. Since he headlined Premier Boxing Champions’ inaugural show by beating Robert Guerrero in March 2015, the often-injured Thurman has boxed just seven times in almost seven years.
The Clearwater, Florida, native ended a 2½-year layoff Saturday night, when he out-pointed Mario Barrios unanimously in a 12-round WBC welterweight elimination match.
Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs, 1 NC) expressed during a post-fight press conference that he would prefer for his next fight to come against the Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas winner. He added, however, that he would welcome a different fight if it meant remaining active on his way toward challenging Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) or Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs) in November or December.
Economics might prevent that from happening, regardless of Thurman’s preference, yet staying sharp is important to the 33-year-old ex-champion.
“The fighter in me says, ‘Give it to me! Let’s go! I wanna be champion! I want the winner,’ ” Thurman said. “You know, but there’s, you know, a weird, little technicality that happened, you know, for some of those who read the article, that this was like a [WBC] title eliminator. I don’t know the politics all the time, man. I’m just a performer. I do believe that I should be worthy of challenging any world champion, at any given point in time, considering my resume and everything that has happened in my career. But it does feel very good to just be back. So, if I have to take another fight and just keep, like I said, go from being good to being great to being a champion, then so be it.”
Spence, of DeSoto, Texas, and Miami’s Ugas will fight April 16 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for Spence’s IBF and WBC belts and Ugas’ WBA championship. The winner of that Pay-Per-View main event would emerge in prime position to battle unbeaten WBO champion Terence Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) for full supremacy in the welterweight division.
Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska, is a promotional free agent, however, which could enable Thurman to fight the winner instead. Thurman mentioned that he is open to challenging Crawford as well, though he clearly would prefer the Spence-Ugas winner.
“You know, I’m so happy to be back. I wanna do what I haven’t done in the past 2½ years,” Thurman said. “Keith Thurman does wanna be an active fighter. So, we have to go back, talk to our team, see what’s brought to the table through the networks, through Al Haymon and just go with the flow, man. I just really wanna have a more active year. I wanna have more performances for the fans, I wanna have more performances for myself. But no matter what – if it happens this summer, if it happens back in November and December, Keith Thurman is on the road to being champion in the welterweight division once again.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.