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LAS VEGAS – Keith Thurman seemed somewhat interested late Saturday night in the possibility of fighting Terence Crawford next. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
Thurman was honest, though, in making it clear that he would prefer to fight the winner of the upcoming championship unification bout between rival Errol Spence Jr. and Yordenis Ugas. His 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat of Mario Barrios (26-2, 17 KOs) on Saturday night came in a WBC elimination match, which will enable the WBC to rank him because Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs, 1 NC) finally ended what was a 2½-year layoff.
Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs), a three-division champion who owns the WBO welterweight title, has repeatedly mentioned Thurman as his top option for his next fight, in part because Spence and Ugas will fight each other either April 9 or April 16. Thurman acknowledged it’s helpful that Crawford’s contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. ended after his 10th-round stoppage of Shawn Porter on November 20 at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena, the same arena where Thurman beat Barrios.
“Well, you know, the fact that he’s a free agent should make things a little bit better,” Crawford said during a post-fight press conference. “Working with Bob is not fun for a lot of fighters. At the end of the day, I’m not sure. You know, you see what I’m wearing right now [a WBC medal]. You see what I’m representin’. They’ve been asking me for a long time, ‘Where are you ranked, Keith Thurman?’ And I say, ‘Pfft. I don’t know. I’m one of the best fighters in the world. Who cares what rank they give me, what number they give me, what position they give me?’ You know, I do wanna fight champions. I’m gonna be looking forward to getting in the ring with a champion. I want an opportunity to get a world title again. So, if [Crawford is] the best opportunity, I’ll take it.”
Crawford-Thurman would do much better business on pay-per-view and at the gate than Thurman-Barrios, which amounted to a non-title bout between two fighters coming off losses.
Crawford, 34, and Thurman, 33, are two of the most polarizing performers in the sport. Furthermore, Crawford, of Omaha, Nebraska, is widely viewed as the best boxer in a deep division, whereas Thurman, of Clearwater, Florida, is a former WBA and WBC champion who has lost only a split decision to Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao.
Nevertheless, the allure of finally fighting Spence (27-0, 21 KOs), the IBF and WBC champ, or Cuba’s Ugas (27-4, 12 KOs), who upset Pacquiao on August 21 to win the WBA belt Pacquiao took from Thurman in July 2019, really resonates with Thurman.
“You know, I always loved great fights,” Thurman said. “I love making exciting fights in the welterweight division. But like I said, you see what I’m representin’ right now. So, this might be the ladder that I’m climbing. We know that Errol Spence-Yordenis Ugas, none of these fights woulda manifested if Keith Thurman didn’t lose to Manny Pacquiao. So, there was a shift in matchups once when I fell out of championship status.
“So, I had the WBA, I had the WBC. I relinquished the WBC. Nobody beat me for the WBC world title. You know, so those belts, I want back in my possession. I do like the fight with Terence Crawford, but we’ll just have to see what opens up, what really negotiates, how stubborn we get when it comes to what kind of split there is. You know, it’s just business from here on out. I do like the fight, though.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.