Fast, but not elusive?strong, but not powerful?brave, but not fearless, Thurman is less than the sum of his parts?
Listen to the boxing experts and you might think that the welterweight division has been whittled down to two elite fighters on a collision course to determine ultimate supremacy. It?s Keith Thurman vs. Errol Spence Jr.?and the winner will be the next superstar in a long line of welterweight superstars to claim dominance of the historically glamorous 147 lb. weight class.
And, yeah, Spence may soon prove himself to be the heir to the throne held by Mayweather, Whitaker, The Sugar Rays, etc. He IS potentially that good. But Thurman? Nope. Just decent, nothing more.
Fast, but not elusive?strong, but not powerful?brave, but not fearless, Thurman is less than the sum of his parts. His movement has no purpose other than to show movement. His ?One Time? power is more like a solid thud than an explosive blast.
Thurman is more like a three-sport high school standout athlete wearing boxing gloves than a born fighter. And even though he has been boxing since he was seven, when he was ?discovered? by late trainer-turned-school janitor Ben Getty (!), he?s still pretty much employing PAL-level ring strategies.
Current trainer Dan Birmingham?the brains behind Jeff Lacy?s skills (!)?has done little to corral Thurman?s assorted physical gifts into one cohesive unit. Thurman?s more basic than basic game plans look to be devised using Colorforms and a Magic 8-Ball. Move to move?punch hard?try not to fall down?reply hazy, try again.
But a fighter, given the right matchmaking, can coast on raw talent as he moves up the ranks. Thurman?s liabilities were only an issue in theory for the first 90% of his career.
After going through an opponent list of the usual fall guys and no-hopers, like most prospects, Thurman was able to pummel heavy-legged punch-eating machines Diego Chaves and Jesus Soto-Karass, but not before taking way too many shots, himself. A red flag was raised. Someone sold as speedy shouldn?t be getting hit as often as he was and someone sold as having awe-inspiring one-punch power shouldn?t need nine or ten rounds of flush punches to stop guys whose only defense is the sign of the cross.
His bout with the fringe contender from Sierra Leone by way of Cisterna, Italy, Leonard Bundu, showed even more defects in Thurman?s game. Presented with a more complex puzzle to solve, Thurman was tentative and he stuck to working on the outside. He still got hit plenty?and often flush?but only when he dared venture inside. He also landed several hard shots that had no effect on Bundu. A smattering of boos could be heard throughout the latter stages of the fight as Thurman cruised to a unanimous decision victory.
In his next fight, Thurman again got cracked hard and often, this time by Robert Guerrero, who had fought just once in the nearly two years since his emasculating de-pantsing at the hands of Floyd Mayweather. A gaunt and weary-looking Guerrero walked through Thurman?s very best in the early rounds and made it a battle late, landing some serious leather on Thurman, raising welts on ?One Time?s? face. Ultimately, though, Guerrero didn?t really do enough to win more than two or three rounds on any scorecard and would lose a wide unanimous decision.
Next, matched against light-hitting veteran gatekeeper Luis Collazo, Thurman almost bit the big one, furthering the idea that the Thurman hype train was one good penny on the tracks away from derailment. Jumping to an early lead, flinging the occasional bomb from the outside, Thurman got caught with a perfect gut shot from Collazo at the end of round six that nearly dropped him and had him fleeing in retreat, looking to hold on. Thurman reacted less like ?The Next Big Thing? and more like a front-running football team running out the clock. ?Luckily? for him, Collazo would pull an indirect quit job one round later by claiming that the blood from a cut over his eye had blinded him, essentially forcing the stoppage by the ringside doctor.
Thurman?s subsequent graduation to ?elite-level? opposition has been a mixed bag.
His sloppy but entertaining win over Shawn Porter in June of 2016 showed Thurman at his very best?but against an opponent stylistically limited and chronically uneven in execution. Thurman showed plenty of guts and conditioning in his biggest challenge up until that point of his career, but he looked plenty sloppy himself and could, really, never do much better than be slightly sharper than a tough, but limited title challenger.
Nine months later, against fellow welterweight titlist Danny Garcia, Thurman served up a heaping helping of disappointment as he played it mega-safe against a passive and utterly disinterested Garcia en route to a split decision victory. Garcia was definitely there for the taking and it?s hard to imagine any true elite-level welterweight, from any era, playing it safe from the outside like Thurman did, content with just doing enough to walk away with a close decision.
The Garcia fight was Thurman?s biggest fight to date and it could?ve provided a highlight reel KO for a career that was riding high post-Porter performance. But him playing it safe, laboring to ?box??and it was a fairly sloppy, incomplete stab at ?slick? boxing?was a troubling harbinger of what could be coming from a Thurman fully graduated to more dangerous opposition. Will fans be seeing a ?boxing? Thurman trying to utilize ?skill? to ?box? his way to wins? Thurman IS good enough and athletic enough to totally stink things up if he so chooses?and if he DOES so choose, man, his bouts will be about as compelling as his hillside flute recitals.
But, honestly, where does he go with his approach to fights when his options may boil down to two?go to war against opposition that may be sharper and stronger than him or stink out joints and hope to be athletic enough to carry an edge on scorecards?
Expect Thurman?s weaknesses and liabilities to keep being exposed, little by little, though. Eventually, someone will come along and put Thurman down and he?ll settle into his proper place in the sport as a mid-level Top 10 guy, waiting on the day when some stud?likely Errol Spence Jr.?comes along to put him away
