Was the bar set too high for Keith ?One Time? Thurman this weekend? Even before his fight with Luis Collazo, he was deemed boxing?s next big star per the PBC on ESPN commercials. Thurman drew a solid 4,312 fans in his home debut at the USF Sun Dome this weekend. He got a stoppage of Luis Collazo in a fight where he was in control throughout most of the fight, minus the last 30 seconds of round 5.
Collazo landed a perfect liver shot which had Thurman hurt. Thurman said it was the perfect body shot, even told me he considered taking a knee. But he recovered and took the next two rounds.
A lot was different in this fight. Thurman was on the move a lot. He?s a solid puncher and solid boxer, but someone on twitter put it into perspective, if Thurman doesn?t knock you out early, he begins to box. That may be something to consider as he did move a lot in this fight and in the end of the Robert Guerrero fight where his punch output dropped in the later rounds.
Here?s what analyst Al Bernstein had to say about Thurman?s performance via his Facebook account:
?Just watched Thurman-Collazo. Main story to me, though it did not receive any mention on the telecast, is that Keith has changed his identity in the ring over the last few fights and this effort made it official in my mind. He is no longer a boxer-puncher, he is a boxer. He now moves so much and punches off his back foot so much that he is simply not the power puncher he was before. He is a very skilled fighter and has improved his boxing skills a lot. BUT, by ceding his power he takes away a big element of his game. And, because he squares up too much he has some holes defensively when he is not attacking. I have praised Keith a lot, and I still think he?s a very good fighter, but we have to evaluate THIS Keith Thurman through a different lens. The next level of competition against a Brook or Porter or Khan will tell us a lot. But, this is definitely a new mindset than the Thurman we saw prior to the Bundu, Guerrero, and Collazo fights.?
And that?s a fair point. I fell in love with Thurman?s power when he was stopping guys like Diego Chaves, Jesus Soto-Karass, and Carlos Quintana.
