Keith “One Time” Thurman now owns two titles. The defending WBA welterweight champion added Danny Garcia’s WBC strap to his title collection after a split decision victory Saturday night.
During the highly-anticipated showdown, the two fighters came out throwing plenty of punches with bad intentions over the first few rounds. Then, Thurman (28-0-0, 22 KO) settled into a more measured approach, utilizing lateral movement and counter-punching to frustrate Garcia (33-1-0, 19 KO) during the early and middle rounds.
Garcia was the aggressor for much of the fight, but he was unable to cut off the ring consistently. Thurman was able to stay just out of range of Garcia’s vaunted left hook for most of the fight. Sensing he had built up a lead, Thurman moved around the ring constantly during the championship rounds. Still, while Garcia whiffed on his punches, Thurman often landed a few shots as he stopped to switch directions.
After Thurman was announced as the victor, a legion of fans and pundits rushed to deem the fight as “boring.” Many accused Thurman of “running,” including Angel Garcia, Danny’s father and trainer.
“You cannot beat a world champion running like Thurman did,” said Angel after the fight. “It’s not that I’m a bad loser, it’s just that I’m disgusted with boxing right now.”
Unfortunately for Angel, the CompuBox stats show that even though Thurman definitely moved around the ring, he also threw and landed more punches in the fight with 570 punches thrown and 147 punches landed compared to Danny Garcia’s 434 and 130 respectively.
It’s amazing to see some of the same people who lauded Floyd Mayweather Jr. for his slick boxing skills, deride Thurman for relying on defense and ring generalship to lead him to victory. As I mentioned last week, part of the problem is due to how Thurman is billed. For those that don’t do their homework, the “One Time” moniker makes it sound like Thurman is a miniature version of Mike Tyson. In reality, he’s a counter-puncher with enough pop to put a hurt on his opponents to sleep IF they rush in recklessly.
Boxing promoters are like used car salesmen. They’re going to do their best to make a 1990 Toyota Camry sound like a 2017 Mercedes E-Class coupe. The matchup between Thurman and Garcia was never going to be a rock ‘em, sock ‘em type of bout. It was a boxing match between two highly-skilled counter-punchers with solid power.
Though it wasn’t Arturo Gatti vs Mickey Ward, it was an entertaining and tactical battle for those who appreciate the technical side of boxing.
Pacquiao vs Khan called off
A proposed fight between WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan has been called off as quickly as it came to fruition.
Just two weeks ago, Pacquiao and Khan announced the pair had agreed to a fight on April 23 in the UAE. However, this week Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum announced that the bout would not take place due to a lack of funding by investment group that made the proposal.
Before the bout was announced (then cancelled), Pacquiao held a Twitter poll to determine his opponent.
Khan’s 48% beat out Kell Brook (24%), Terence Crawford (21%) and Jeff Horn (7%), with whom Arum had an agreement in place for Pacquiao to face in Australia.
While Khan may have a higher profile, a bout with Brook, Crawford or evev Thurman would be much more enticing for boxing fans. With the Khan bout off the table (for now), maybe we’ll see Pacquiao in a much more meaningful matchup.
Considering how boxing goes, especially Arum, odds are Pacquiao’s next bout will be with the unknown Horn.
Woodley retains title
St. Louis-native Tyron Woodley retained his UFC Welterweight Championship with a majority decision over Stephen Thompson in UFC 209. The fight was a rematch of November bout that ended in a draw. Though the second fight was nearly just as close on the scorecards, a barrage of punches in the last minute of the fight, likely gave Woodley and edge on the scorecards.
Instead of praising the champion’s, UFC President Dana White pulled out his petty card after the fight and announced that he thought Thompson deserved the decision.
When Woodley complained about White’s comments and how he has been promoted since winning the title, White doubled-down on his criticism to TMZ.
“Tyron Woodley came out and said he was going to destroy Thompson and there would be no question he was the champ,” White said. “Well guess what? There’s [sic] questions again. Let me tell you what … when you have a performance like you did at 209 and you get booed for five straight rounds and then people are booing so loud you can’t even do your interview, you should probably just take your lumps and move on.”
Woodley shouldn’t bother responding to White, who has proven to be a troll time and time again. Instead, he needs to place a call to Remy Ma to have her escort him to the ring for his next bout. Maybe then White will put some ‘respeck’ on his name. Even White doesn’t want those types of problems.
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