Former unified welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) will be resuming his career to challenge Tim Tszyu (24-0, 19 KOs) for his WBO junior middleweight title in the main event on March 30th on Amazon Prime Video PPV in Las Vegas.
ESPN reports that Thurman will return to the ring for the first time in 784 days since his last fight against Mario Barrios on February 5th, 2022. This will be Thurman’s first fight at 154 in his 17-year professional career.
Tszyu: The Aussie Assassin Ascending
The powerful Tszyu will be looking for his biggest career win when he faces Thurman, and this will be Tim’s first PPV in the U.S. This could have been Terence Crawford who is challenging Tszyu instead of Thurman, but the Omaha, Nebraska native hasn’t shown interest.
Tszyu has recent wins over Brian Mendoza, Tony Harrison, Carlos Ocampo, and Terrell Gausha. Tim was dropped by Gausha early in their fight, and he struggled to defeat him.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Tszyu does against a fighter who was the best fighter in the welterweight division. None of the guys that Tszyu has faced were the kind of talents that Thurman was during his prime years before injuries sidelined him beginning in 2017.
Thurman: The One-Time King Returns
Keith Thurman is well-known to hardcore boxing fans, especially the older ones who followed the sport in 2017 and earlier. Younger fans might know him from his YouTube interviews, but they’ve probably never seen him fight before.
He’s only fought once in the last five years, against Mario Barriors in 2022. Thurman has a powerful left hook that he can throw quickly while backing up. If a fighter pursues Thurman, he’ll throw his left hook while retreating and doing damage.
Thurman reportedly had an injury that kept him out of action for the last two years since his fight with Barrios. It’s unclear what the injury is, but hopefully, it’s healed.
Moving up to 154 should help Thurman because he won’t have to lose as much weight. When a fighter has been out of the ring for as long as Thurman, it could be hard to trim down to his old weight.
