Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman says fans want to see better fights from Canelo Alvarez in his weight class at 168 than the opposition he’s been picking.
The former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Thurman recently made a comeback after 2 1/2 years out of the ring, and after one tune-up, he’s ready to challenge the best against Errol Spence Jr. or Terence Crawford next.
‘One Time’ says he understands the rationale behind Canelo picking & choosing his opposition, as he wants to preserve his position at the top of the sport for as long as possible.
The best way for Canelo to achieve that is to avoid fighting dangerous guys like David Benavidez, Demetrius Andrade, Dmitry Bivol, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Artur Beterbiev.
Thurman states that Canelo “learned from Floyd” regarding the way he picks his opposition.
Thurman: Canelo learned from Floyd
“Canelo loves a great challenge, he loves a great fight, and he loves to up his accolades in the sport of boxing,” said Keith Thurman to Fight Hub TV. “We all tip our hats to him.
“Nobody would expect this out of Canelo when he first came to America,” said Thurman. “A lot of people saw him as a great little padded record.
“The real prince. Everybody else loved him, knocking people out, but a lot of people saw he was being groomed. Floyd [Mayweather Jr] showed he had room for improvement, but boy has he improved since then.
“That’s the stuff that I respect in this sport is for fighters to understand when they’re not complete, and they work towards that completion.
“So, it’s very admirable what he’s been doing in his career, and he’s at the stage where he picks fights for the fans. Everybody pretty much loves Canelo, so he almost can’t do no wrong, man.
“Let’s just see what he does,” said Thurman. “We love the [Jermall] Charlo fights. We want better fights in his division [168]. He’s hopping around. I mean, he learned from Floyd, what can we say?” said ‘One Time’ about Canelo selecting opponents.
Mayweather used to fight the best earlier in his career when he was battling killers like Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales.
However, when Mayweather moved up to 147, he became a cherry-picker/opportunist, so we didna see him face dangerous opposition unless they were old or very young, in the case of Canelo.
Canelo can fight who he wants
“He’s of the highest paid boxers in the sport of boxing today respectively for many different reasons,” said Thurman about Canelo.
“When you have the luxury of doing what you want to do and getting paid what you want to get paid, and you don’t have to be forced to fight the competition that’s really out there, it’s a double-edged sword.
“You’re going to get critics who talk about ‘He should be in the ring with Charlo, he should do this, he should do that.’ That’s cool. You come and be a world-class boxer.You come make the fights. You come do this and that. You do it.
“It’s really hard to be at the status that Canelo has, the status that Floyd had, and the status that Canelo has in the sport today. That’s a very hard status to have.
“So, of course, once a fighter has it, it’s hard to blame them for holding onto that status and doing what we do. I’m still in Vegas. When we’re in Vegas, we’re performers.
“We didn’t come here for the liquor. We didn’t come here for the nightlife. We came here to perform, and that’s what Canelo is, and he’s constantly doing it. He’s satisfying a lot of fans.
“He may not be satisfying every fan, but yall still going to tune into the Canelo fight,” said Thurman.
