Errol Spence: Keith Thurman needs to fight or vacate

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose

Errol Spence Jr. says WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman gets injured more than anybody he knows, and he thinks he either needs to fight or give up his title twos.

Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) has had injuries that has kept him out of the ring for the last 13 months, and he now has a new injury to his left hand that is expected to keep him out of the ring until July before he’s healthy enough to finally make a defense of his WBA and WBC 147 lb. titles. In the meantime, the World Boxing Association hasn’t said anything about potentially stripping the often injured Thurman of his WBA welterweight title.

The WBC has ordered a fight between the top two contenders in their 147 lb. rankings, Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter, to fight for the interim WBC welterweight title. It’s quite possible that the winner of the Garcia-Porter fight, if it takes place, could soon be the new WBC 147 lb. champion if Thurman continues to have injury problems.

”You’ve got to ask him,” Spence said when asked why Thurman keeps getting injured. The dude gets injured more than anybody I know.”

Thurman’s latest injuries are just the tip of the iceberg. He was injured in 2014 with a shoulder problem. In 2016, Thurman suffered a neck injury from a car accident that limited him to just one fight during the year. In 2017, Thurman suffered an elbow injury following his 12 round split decision win over Danny Garcia on March 4. Thurman revealed that he had the injury before he fought Garcia.

For some reason, Thurman didn’t reveal that he was injured before the fight. The elbow has since been surgically repaired, but Thurman has still been unable to return to the ring after 13 months. Coming back from the elbow surgery has been glacially slow for Thurman. It’s unclear why the WBA and WBC have allowed the injured Thurman to sit on his titles without stripping him of the belts.

You can argue that those two sanctioning bodies should have stepped in and stripped Thurman of both of his titles in March of this year when he failed to defend the belts during a 12 month period. The contenders that are waiting for their title shots at the WBA and WBC belts that Thurman has in his possession are watching their own careers frozen. It’s hard to believe that the sanctioning bodies don’t have rules in place already prevent injured fighters from sitting on their belts year after year, not fighting and just holding onto the titles.

”Thurman can fight. He’s a good fighter, but it seems like he’s losing the hunger a little bit,” Spence said. ”If you look at him three years ago the way he was talking. Now the way he’s talking is totally different. He’s talking like an old fighter on the edge of retiring. A lot of things changed [with Thurman]; more money. He just got comfortable. It happens over time. He’s accomplished a lot of things. He beat Danny Garcia. A lot of things changed. He’s comfortable. He’s just got a lot of money now. He’s not as hungry as he used to be,” Spence said.

Thurman’s body doesn’t seem to be capable of handling the wear and tear of training and fighting at this point in his career. Thurman is 29-years-old, and while that’s not old for most fighters, it’s obviously an age where ‘One Time’ is starting to have problems physically. In other sports, athletes start to break down when they hit their early 30s.Thurman is right on the end of 30, so his body is starting to show age problems. Unfortunately, it’s likely to get worse before it gets better for Thurman. He’ll be turning 30 in six months, and who knows how much longer he has before his body can no longer handle him competing in boxing. Hopefully by then the sanctioning bodies make the right decision and strip the WBA and WBC titles from Thurman so the other fighters can fight for those belts. With Thurman’s chronic injury problems, he’d be better off holding the Ring Magazine welterweight title. That’s a strap where fighters can often sit on the title for years without defending it for some reason. I don’t know why Ring Magazine doesn’t strip the idle champions, but they just don’t until a fighter has been out for a long, long time. Thurman would be perfect as a Ring champion. He could make title defenses every other year, and still likely keep the belt.

”Maybe he want to go wherever his wife’s from and live out the rest of his years,”Spence said about Thurman. ”He needs to stop holding the belts up. Fight or vacate.”

Well, Spence shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for Thurman to voluntarily vacate his WBA and WBC welterweight titles, because that’s not going to happen. Those titles give Thurman status, so as long as he has them in his possession, he’ll continue to receive that status. It’s the sanctioning bodies’ jobs to strip the titles from injured fighters that can no longer defend their belts in a timely fashion. If the WBA and WBC are opting not to take Thurman’s titles from him, then they must be fine with having a champion who isn’t defending their titles frequently. However, at some point, it’s likely the sanctioning bodies will tire of having their belts defended infrequently, and they’ll then strip Thurman and give him an emeritus tag. If Thurman becomes an emeritus champion, he’ll be able to get a title shot whenever he likes against the next champions. If he beats that champion to recapture the belt, then it could start all over again potentially with the injuries and the long periods between title defenses. That’s why the sanctioning bodies need to make rules that prevent fighters from sitting on their titles without defending them. Personally, I think champions should be defending their titles once every six months. If they’re unable to do that, then the sanctioning bodies should strip them of their belts and let other fighters fight for them. If the sanctioning bodies play it that way, then you don’t have a title frozen for 1+ years while the injured champion is licking his wounds and trying to get healthy enough to defend their belts.

”I have dreams of being the unified welterweight champion of the world,” Spence said.”I have aspirations of winning a 154 lb. title, and being undisputed super welterweight champion of the world at 154. That’s what keeps me hungry,” Spence said,

It’s going to take Spence a LONG, long time before he’s able to unify the 147 lb. weight class. I think it’s a waste of time, to be honest. With Thurman’s chronic injury problems, and the backlog of mandatory defenses he needs to make for his WBA and WBC titles, Spence will be lucky if he can get a fight against Thurman by 2020. Thurman is just too injury prone for Spence to get a unification fight against him anytime soon. Spence fighting the WBO belt holder might not be any easier. That title is held by a Top Rank fighter Jeff Horn, and it’s unlikely that sanctioning body is going to want to put a fight together with Spence, especially if he’s looking good.

“If he want to fight, come on up,” Spence said of Mikey Garcia. ”He’s always using my name, so come on.”

IBF light welterweight champion Mikey Garcia has recently been talking of wanting to move up to 147 to face Spence for his IBF welterweight title. However, given how difficult it was for Garcia to win the IBF 140 lb. title against Sergey Lipinets recently, it appears that he’s now thinking of going back down to 135. Since the Lipinets fight, Mikey seems less eager to move up to 147.

“If he gets a belt, I probably will go back to the UK. I don’t care,” Spence said about Kell Brook.

Spence already stopped Kell Brook in the 11th round last year in May to win the IBF welterweight title. Brook has recently invited Spence to come up to 154 to fight him in that weight class, saying that he believes that he’s stronger at this weight and will beat him. However, Spence wants Brook to win a world title first before he bothers to go up in weight to fight him at junior middleweight. Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing appears to be angling him to fight for the WBO 154 lb. title in the near future. That title has a weak champion in Sadam Ali. He’s about to defend his belt against the UK’s Liam Smith, who previously held that strap in 2016. Brook will likely beat the winner of the Ali-Smith fight to become the new WBO 154 lb. champion. Once that happens, Spence can go after that title to face Brook in a rematch.

”Definitely. He’s really a 154lber,” Spence said when asked if he’d be interested in fighting Canelo Alvarez.

Saul Canelo Alvarez could return to 154 if he loses to Gennady Golovkin in their rematch, which is expected to take place in September. Canelo is too small to be fighting at 160, so he could return to 154, and he would then be available for guys like Spence to fight.

Spence will be defending his IBF welterweight title against his mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs) on June 16 on Showtime Boxing in Dallas, Texas. Ocampo has done nothing to deserve the #1 ranking by the International Boxing Federation. It’s not surprising the IBF has a limited fighter like Ocampo as the No.1 contender. In recent years, the IBF has ranked the likes of Kevin Bizier and Jo Jo Dan at No.1 without either of them having beaten anyone quality to rate ranking.