Dan Birmingham trained welterweight star Keith Thurman(25-0, 21ko) has spoken to fighthype.com about the future of the welterweight division in the wake of the Mayweather/Pacquiao saga to say that while Floyd is undoubtedly P4P #1 in the world, Manny Pacquiao has certainly dropped in his estimations.
The undefeated Florida star, who is never short of confidence said of the Filipino legend;
“Floyd is definitely the top dog. But Manny Pacquiao….what was that loss for Manny? Number 6? Number 7 in his career?” (6)
“To me Manny Pacquiao is no longer the 2nd best, he’s no longer really the 3rd best. I don’t really know where they’re gonna put him in the rankings but we’ve seen the formula to beat Pacquiao many times.”
“There are 3 or 4 welterweights in the top 10 who would either be able to go toe-to-toe with or actually beat him right now. I think he holds his high ranking out of respect for all that he’s done in his career but I do see him with not too many more fights.”
“Pacquiao might be younger than Mayweather but he’s had more fights, more wars and brawls than Mayweather has been in. That can make a younger fighter age quicker and I think that’s what has happened to Manny Pacquiao.”
After the Floyd fight and his subsequent injury and surgery, there are sure to be many more at 147 who fancy the Pacquiao job as well as ‘One Time’ – including Britain’s Kell Brook and Amir Khan – who have both ostensibly linked themselves to later fights with the Filipino king.
Whether we shall even see Manny fight again remains to be seen yet one thing is for certain.
Keith Thurman isn’t planning on going anywhere.
Twitter @Undilutedpoison