Keith Thurman might be the most patient man in the world.
For the former unified welterweight champ, he’s been forced to take a slow and methodical approach. With only two fights since July of 2019, Thurman’s body simply isn’t what it used to be.
In 2024, the now 36-year-old was scheduled to move up in weight to take on Tim Tszyu. As their showdown grew closer, Thurman reluctantly revealed that an injury would keep him out of the ring.
With the show needing to go on, not only did Sebastian Fundora step in but he also produced one of the biggest upsets of the year. Although Tszyu blamed his performance on a gigantic gash that opened up early on in his fight, he took another immediate defeat. This time to Bakhram Murtazaliev.
For Tszyu, he started off his career by looking unbeatable. But his invincibility has been directly tied to him fighting in the comforts of his home, Australia. Whenever he’s been forced to fight stateside, he’s either struggled or come up short.
When he was originally scheduled to face Tszyu, Thurman shouted from the mountain tops that the now former 154-pound champ wasn’t what he appeared to be. Now, with back-to-back losses attached to his name, Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) believes everyone owes him an apology.
“I told you he wasn’t scary,” Thurman told MillCity Boxing recently. “I told you he wasn’t dangerous. He was not capable of dominating in the world of boxing when he came over here to America. The little fish got in with all the big fish.”
Although he was happy to be proven right, Thurman wanted to become the first man to expose Tszyu’s flaws.
On March 12th, he’ll make another junior middleweight comeback attempt when he squares off against Brock Jarvis.
As long as everything goes to plan, Thurman would love to revisit a matchup with his original opponent.