Keith Thurman – BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK

The news Keith Thurman will not be boxing the surging Tim Tszyu for the Australian’s WBO belt and the vacant WBC Junior Middleweight title this weekend due to a bicep injury caused barely a ripple of surprise to those who have followed the Florida man’s catalogue of sabbaticals in recent years. It is cruel luck perhaps, but nevertheless an entirely predictable development for a 35-year-old fighter once of incredible gift, seeking to push his body through the rigours of training camp for only the second time in two years and the third in five.

Thurman’s career, if this marks the end of his significance, is increasingly defined by what he has been unable to do as that which once came naturally to him.

Evidence of declension, from the vitality of his twenties to the dwindling returns of his thirties, was writ large on his face long before he withdrew from the Tszyu fight. There was age in his eyes. The luster of youth lost from his skin.

The elongated Sebastian Fundora, also from Florida, and aged 26, steps forward in Thurman’s stead.

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Article first appeared on Freebets.bet

The current Welterweight division would benefit from some ‘old-school’ busyness as it seeks to ascertain who is the true king from a courtyard full of aspiring princes and deposed monarchs.

On Saturday night, Keith Thurman will return from the latest hiatus in his 11-year career to pursue this unified crown and reinforce a claim validated by a resume that contemporaries struggle to match, but one undermined by inactivity.

Following Manny Pacquiao’s victory last week, and with the spectre of Terence Crawford tackling Amir Khan and Errol Spence tangling with Mikey Garcia already on the horizon, Thurman’s return following surgery and rehabilitation, elongated by subsequent injuries, is exciting and timely. Continue reading “Thurman returns; rugged Josesito Lopez the first challenge” →

In my preparation of notes for this weekend’s clash between Welterweights Keith Thurman and Josesito Lopez I was struck by the inactivity of both men; Thurman returns from a prolonged sabbatical following elbow surgery and Lopez fights for the first time in almost a year. As the attraction in the fight, Thurman’s absence has been well documented and largely explainable but their respective inactivity is reflective of a broader trend in boxing, particularly among those who have punched and parried their way to the top of their division.

Not fighting has become customary. This ‘resting’, as old thespians may have once termed these periods of unemployment, is a point of frustration for many of us who remember a time when champions and contenders fought three, four and more times per calendar year. True, training has evolved. Accruing new voices from the doctrines of science, nutrition as well as a disparate parade of sorcerers and snake oil salesman from the grey-scale in between. A boxer’s ‘camp’ has now become an umbrella beneath which this entourage of analysts and soothsayers restore the abandoned physique to optimum and, in doing so, too frequently devour large swathes of calendar too. Continue reading “Not fighting; the new fighting” →