Keith Thurman Says Barrios Lacked the Confidence to Fight with 8 Ounce Gloves
Come February 5, former Regular WBA super lightweight champion Mario “El Azteca” Barrios (26-1, 17 KO’s) is staging a bold step up. This is because Barrios is moving up to the welterweight division to take on heavy-handed Keith “One Time” Thurman (29-1, 22 KO’s). The dustup versus Thurman will be his first outing since losing his Regular WBA title to Gervonta Davis back on June 26. Similarly, El Azteca will represent Thurman’s first in-ring assignment since being defeated by the living legend Manny Pacquiao.
WHY THE PILLOWS?!
Despite the obvious bravado that he has displayed just in accepting the bout, Thurman questions how deeply Barrios’ confidence actually flows. During the fight negotiations, there was conflict in terms of the gloves selected for the rumble. If given his choice, Thurman would have donned 8 ounce gloves for the duel. Yet, Team Barrios advocated for 10 ounce gloves. Being that this discrepancy existed, the 10 ounce gloves were used by default. His insistence on the ‘safer’ gloves got One Time to thinking.
“You say he has so much confidence yet the young man wants 10 ounces gloves and not 8 ounces, you know what I mean? So you got a lot of confidence but you don’t got eight ounce confidence! He ain’t trying to just check me, ‘Thurman is weak to the body,’ [then] put the right sized gloves on and hurt me boy! Do it boy! At the end of the day, he might have confidence, but I feel a little question mark in the background.”
IT TOOK A REAL ONE
Wisely though, Thurman is not running wild with his theories.
“He’s moving up in a weight class, he knows he is facing a puncher, he could have took an easier fight. He took a challenging fight, let’s just take the ten ounce gloves and let’s have a great challenge! I respect that. I don’t know the real philosophy behind it but, when you are given an option, it’s an option. You have the right to say yes and you have the right so say no, he made his choice. My opinion doesn’t matter from this point on. ”
ON THE CANVAS
Regardless of the amount of padding they have shielding their knuckles on fight night, this should prove to be a fantastic scrap. Without question, there are “crossroad” overtones involved. Sure, the two fighters are only facing their second potential loss ,so it’s too premature to start writing their careers off all together.
At the same time however, there are not too many top tier boxers breaking their neck trying to face One Time. So, this late in his career, with his large gaps in activity and minus a title, Thurman cannot afford to come up short against Barrios; especially with him moving up in weight.
Likewise, Barrios has already admitted that making the super lightweight limit had become more trouble than it was worth. This left him no other option but to move up. Now that he has been forced into the 147-pound division, he certainly can’t afford to start off with a loss. Therefore, with these gloomy pitfalls looming abound, both Thurman and Barrios are sure to fight with ferocity and determination come fight night!
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By: Bakari Simpson
