Thurman beats Collazo, fails to impress

By Jeff Sorby - 07/11/2015 - Comments

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WBA “regular” welterweight title holder Keith Thurman (26-0, 22 KOs) got the victory tonight in beating B-level fighter Luis Collazo (36-7, 19 KOs) by an 8th round TKO after Collazo told the referee he couldn’t see out of his cut right eye an a fight that was televised on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN from the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida.

The cut was caused by a head-butt earlier in the fight, but because Collazo quit, the fight didn’t go to the cards. It didn’t matter how the fight was halted. Collazo was going to lose anyway. But in winning the fight, Thurman got pretty well exposed. First of all, he was hurt by a shot in the 5th that had him crumpled over looking like he was about to heave. But then Thurman made things much worse by spending the entire fight running and pot shotting, and looking like a poor version of David Haye. Thurman fights a lot like Haye, except he runs a lot more than him.

Thurman landed a lot of heavy shots, but he didn’t look good when getting hit in return. In fact, Thurman looked downright timid, and nothing like the top fighters in the welterweight division like Errol Spence Jr., Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana. Thurman showed no heart for staying in the pocket. It was all pot shot and running from Thurman, and it looked so bad. Thurman was fortunate that he was fighting in front of a sympathetic hometown crowd in Tampa, because his running would have caused him to get booed out of Las Vegas or New York.

It looked pathetic after the fight when Thurman called out Floyd Mayweather Jr., and dared him and other top fighters to come take his ‘O’. Mayweather would have made Thurman look so bad if he’d been in the ring with him tonight rather than the unranked Collazo, who got the fight after losing badly to Amir Khan year.

I think this performance showed clearly that Thurman is not the guy that will be replacing Mayweather. While Thurman is still unbeaten, his constant running is not entertaining at all, period. It’s like the polar opposite of a typical Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao. If Thurman wants to be the replacement for those guys, then he’s going to really need to do something about his running because it’s painful to watch his constant movement. It’s dull. If Thurman wants to be a star, he’s going to need to dramatically change his fighting style to where he always comes forward, stays in the pocket and never runs. The thing is I don’t think Thurman has the punch resistance to fight aggressively. If you force Thurman to fight like Shawn Porter or Marcos Maidana, I think he’d get knocked out every time, because I have serious questions about his ability to take a shot.

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Undercard results:

Willie Nelson KO 9 Tony Harrison
Edner Cherry TKO 9 Luis Cruz
Carlos Garcia MD 6 Manny Woods
Antonio Tarver Jr. UD 4 Oscar Gonzalez