Thurman Would Love Spence Fight
Oh how the times have changed! In the not so distant past, when current WBC and IBF world welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr (26-0, 21 KO’s) was still making his bones in the division, he was seriously pursuing a fight with Keith “One Time” Thurman (29-1, 22 KO’s). At the time, Spence did not have a title and Thurman was the WBA super world welterweight champion and would later obtain the WBC title as well.
Despite the Truth’s endless callouts, and the public loudly clamoring for the prizefight, One Time kept saying that he was not interested in the fight. To his credit, Thurman never denied that Spence Jr was a gifted fighter. However, his tried and true story was that Spence had to do more. Yet, as the years continued to slip past and their careers advanced, Spence only kept improving.
ROLE REVERSALS
Now The Truth is a unified champion, whereas Keith Thurman vacated his WBC title. Later, One Time would be strong-armed for the WBA super welterweight title and dealt his first professional loss by the living legend Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KO’s). Looking to get back to championship status and regain the perception that he is the man at 147 to beat, Thurman would love to make a bout with any of the belt holders. Naturally this includes Spence Jr, as One Time explained to EsNews.
“I think that’s the next big fight of my life. I mean the other top welterweights, I have competed against them all! And he has fought Shawn [Porter] now, he didn’t get to share the ring with Danny [Garcia], he has yet to share the ring with me or Pacquiao or any other of his peers that are true competitors at the top. So, I definitely look forward to that fight. I’ve been looking forward to that fight. He has a lot at stake now.
The WBC is a belt that I once owned that I had to vacate, so I do feel like, to a degree, fighting me would be the real champion. Nobody fought me, nobody really had to fight for it, it was vacated. It is what it is. He beat a great champion, Shawn Porter, but Shawn Porter has been beaten in the past, so.
A lot of people argue man, I got a lot of friends out here in Florida who don’t think that he really took it. They see a draw, they don’t think that he did enough. So I just want to see how everyone gets back after this COVID.”
WAITED TOO LONG??
While it’s good to finally hear Thurman say that he wants to face Spence in concrete terms, there still remains a good deal of unresolved variables. The most obvious of them all is assessing how well Spence performs in his next prizefight. The Truth has yet to get in the ring with a top flight competitor, or even spar, since suffering a potentially fatal automobile accident in 2019. As could only be assumed he would, The Truth insists that he is good to go. Yet, that remains to be seen.
Provided that Spence Jr does demonstrate that he hasn’t missed a beat, it will be interesting to see if he is willing to face Thurman. The last time that Errol Spence weighed in on fighting Thurman, he let it be known that he was no longer concerned. After being strung along for so long, he sought to do One Time no favors. And with Thurman possessing zero belts, there is no pressing rationale for why The Truth should fight him any time soon. So even though Thurman may want to dance with Spence, we have to see if the feeling is mutual.
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By: Bakari Simpson
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