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By: Hans Themistode
Whenever Keith Thurman’s was brought up in conversations around Errol Spence Jr., the unified welterweight titlist would screw his face up in disgust.
After calling Thurman’s name for years on end while he made his way up the 147-pound ladder but to no avail, Spence Jr. has innate hatred towards the former unified star. At one point, Spence Jr. even went as far as to say that he would never give Thurman an opportunity to face him in the ring.
Still, despite clearly loathing him, Spence Jr. shook his head in approval following Thurman’s latest performance.
On the back of a long hiatus that stretched for well over two years, Thurman handed Mario Barrios a one-sided beating in February of 2022. Not only was Spence Jr. thoroughly impressed but he also offered Thurman a bit of advice to aide him on his comeback trail.
“I thought he performed good, especially being out two years,” said Spence Jr. to FightHype.com. “He had a very good performance. He just gotta stay at it, stay active, stay hungry and he’ll get back to the top.”
Not long ago, Thurman was once in the same position that Spence Jr. currently occupies. From 2015 to 2017, Thurman took on four either former, or at the time, current world champions in a row in Robert Guerrero, Luis Collazo, Shawn Porter, and Danny Garcia – the latter resulted in a successful unified title reign.
Following those string of victories, however, Thurman’s career fell by the wayside. The now-former titlist suffered a long list of perpetual injuries, which, in turn, hasn’t allowed him to be as active as he would like.
Now, with Thurman vowing to make more frequent trips to the ring and regain his championship status, Spence Jr. reveals that no matter what path Thurman’s career ultimately goes down, his name will always remain prevalent in the welterweight title picture.
“He’s always a relevant guy because he has a name.”
