By: Hans Themistode
Keith Thurman is quietly sick and tired of Errol Spence Jr. The current unified welterweight champion has continued to receive a ton of praise for his recent run of big fights over the past few years. With wins over Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Mikey Garcia – Spence Jr. has claimed a spot amongst every sensible top ten pound for pound list. Now, due to his status, Spence Jr. has earned a showdown against former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao.
Despite how many names the Dallas native continues to scratch off his Hitlist, Spence Jr. refuses to face off against Thurman. After spending his younger years chasing a match against the former unified star, Spence Jr. has vowed to never face Thurman since their showdown never took place. While Spence Jr. continues to say that he is no longer interested, Thurman questions whether he was truly interested in the first place.
“When people want somebody, they want somebody,” explained Thurman during an interview with FightHype.com. “When you want a Lamborghini you want a Lamborghini. I can ask you two years from now, you want your Lamborghini, it doesn’t change. When you really want something you want something. I want to see it, I just didn’t want to see it for no reason, at no stage, with no pay. I just didn’t want to see that.”
Although Thurman never believed the time was quite right, at this point, he believes everything now makes sense for their showdown to take place. First things first, however, both sides have a few last-minute things to take care of.
For Spence Jr., an August 21st showdown against Pacquiao is first up on his docket. The long-reigning unified champion has always wanted a matchup with the future first ballot Hall of Famer and will finally get his wish in just a few short months. As for Thurman, he hasn’t stepped into the ring since July of 2019, ironically enough, against Pacquiao. The two faced off at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada with Thurman’s WBA welterweight title on the line.
After hitting the deck in the opening round, Thurman rallied in the second half but ultimately fell short. Immediately following the first defeat of his career, Thurman tended to a nagging hand injury and has been on the sidelines ever since.
Recently, rumors have surfaced that a possible rematch between Shawn Porter and Thurman could take place sometime this fall. Thurman originally won an extremely close unanimous decision victory in 2016. If both Spence Jr. and Thurman come out victorious, a matchup between the pair would be ideal in the mind of Thurman. As far as Spence Jr. reiterating that he has no desire to face him, Thurman believes that his long-time rival should simply put away the theatrics.
“EJ can say whatever he wants, I think it’s a whole bunch of nonsense and drama.”
