It would seem that in many corners of the boxing press, people are turning on Florida’s Keith Thurman following his victory Saturday night over veteran southpaw Luis Collazo. Some of the very same people who believed him to be the 2nd coming are now seemingly changing their mind after witnessing “One Time” overcome a scare at the end of the 5th round, that saw the wind knocked out of his sails from a big shot to the body – with Collazo’s assault only halted by the bell.
It was proof of Thurman once again overcoming adversity in a fight – as he did back in March against Robert Guerrero, fighting on and winning with a nasty head injury. On Saturday he did incredibly well to stay on his feet.
Thurman was also criticized for “getting on his bike” for much of the fight, boxing on the back foot, in contrary to his normal come-forward style. The victory, claimed by Collazo’s retirement after the 7th on a cut, left some with a bad taste.
Afterwards when speaking to Fighthub, Thurman insisted the scare was comparable to Mayweather v Mosely, when Shane had Floyd evidently rocked in the 2nd round of their fight, and for him – the bout was a good learning curve;
“I just want to win, box smart and be the best champion I can be. Knockdowns are not knockouts. If you hurt a fighter, you gotta get them out of there.”
“Let’s flash back to when Floyd Mayweather was shook by ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley. The world was on their toes, Mayweather looked like he was gonna go down but he didn’t go down, he endured. And then he came back and demolished ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley in a 12 round performance. I guess I feel a bit like that.”
The fight obviously drew comparisons to Britain’s Amir Khan – who dominated and floored Collazo in more dominant fashion than Thurman when they fought just over a year ago. Thurman has been extremely vocal, going on record to say he wants a fight with Khan in the immediate future, and is prepared to go to the UK to get it.
With both men under the ‘Haymon umbrella’ it is a fight that should be extremely easy to put together – especially if neither is the man facing Floyd Mayweather on September 12th.
Whether it actually comes together however, is a different matter entirely.
Twitter @Undilutedpoison
