LAS VEGAS, USA
‘Veterans can just outplay you, they can do things and Pacquiao… he’s been through everything,’ says Keith Thurman, who yielded his WBA belt to Manny Pacquiao in 2019
Keith Thurman must have watched, studied, and analyzed his fight with Manny Pacquiao two years ago countless times.
The way he broke it down at the media center on Friday, August 20 (Saturday, August 21, Philippine time) was so detailed and animated sportswriters can visualize what’s running through his mind.
If only he did not commit those little lapses, maybe he would have emerged the split decision winner. Not the other way around.
On Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena here, it will be Yordenis Ugas’ turn to experience sharing the ring with Pacquiao, boxing’s only eight-division world champion.
Thurman can only offer some suggestions and hope they would work.
“Body shots, start from round 1. If he faded on me two years ago, he’s most likely fade on you. If those body shots, we all know the philosophy behind body shots, you chop at the tree, you chop at the tree,” he said.
“If he’s able to do that, I was doing it a little bit, hence that body shot in the 10th round, Pacquiao was like I can do it too, bam. We just got to see, I was big. It was easy to just walk into Pacquiao, with my hands up, I was taking a lot of that. He knocked me down going back.”
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The pivotal first-round knockdown happened when Pacquiao sneaked in a left to the body followed by a right to the head.
And in that fateful 10th, when Pacquiao sent him gasping for breath and retreating to survive.
“The punch angles, even though luckily, it made me smile. I love his tricky uppercut, I just love it because I do it with people in sparring all the time,” said Thurman. “I felt like it was a veteran move like inside me I was like yeah I know that move Manny, nice little move. It’s like being in the poker table and bluff with.”
“Veterans can just outplay you, they can do things and Pacquiao… he’s been through everything, he’s been through everything a fighter can go through, from being knocked out, to winning all these world titles, to always being the small guy at 147,” he added. “Can you ever make him feel uncomfortable? How can we make this guy feel uncomfortable.”
