Keith Thurman and Errol Spence trade words

By Sean Jones: Keith Thurman and Errol Spence Jr. traded words during Tuesday’s Fox Sports and Premier Boxing Champions news conference in Los Angeles, California.

Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) took a shot at Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs), saying that he doubts the inactive 29-year-old will ever fight him as long as he keeps winning. Thurman shot back that he will be fighting him in the future, and that he plans on reestablishing himself as the #1 welterweight in the world in 2019.

Thurman will be coming off of a 2-year layoff to resume his career Josesito Lopez (36-7, 19 KOs) on January 26 on FS1 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Thurman has had hand and elbow injury that has kept him from fighting since March 3, 2017. The top fighters in the 147 lb division like Spence have ground tired of waiting for the still young Thurman to make a comeback. Thurman has already lost one of his two welterweight titles, and he might lose his second belt if he continues to suffer injuries that keep him from fighting.

“This is a big fight for Dallas,” Spence said about his March 16 fight against Mikey Garcia on Fox PPV. “The Shawn Porter fight, I thought that would happen. It somehow fell out.”

With Thurman injured, Spence wanted to fight WBC welterweight champion Shawn Porter in his next fight. That match-up failed to happen, so Spence is taking an even bigger fight against WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs) on March 16 on Showtime pay-per-view at the AT&T Stadium, Arlington. Spence is expected to win that fight with flying colors. Once Garcia is out of the way, Spence will be targeting Porter and Thurman. Porter is likely the one that Spence will be facing in the second half of 2019 if Thurman doesn’t face him. Danny Garcia is positioning himself to fight Porter again, so he’s not an option for Spence Garcia will wants both Porter and Thurman. Spence will probably be the last option for Thurman once he faces Porter and Garcia again.

“Keith Thurman, he’s going to stay injured as long as keep winning. I don’t we’re ever going to fight,” Spence said.

Thurman has got to take it easy during his training camps for him to stay healthy. He seems to overdo it during his camps, and that sidelines him. Thurman’s elbow injury that he had from the Danny Garcia fight was one that he was said to have come into the fight with.

“If he messes around and retires, I’ll get that WBC [WBA Super World] belt,” Spence said.

Spence is obviously talking about Thurman’s World Boxing Super World welterweight title that he’ll be going after if he retires due to his injury problems. Thurman already vacated his WBC 147 lb title earlier this year on April 24. The WBC belt is now in possession of Porter following his 12 round decision win over Danny Garcia last September.

“I look forward to getting back into the ring and establishing myself as the number one welterweight in the world, getting this belt [World Boxing Council 147 lb title], and then negotiating for that big fight with Errol Spence, the one he thinks he’ll never get. I’m not Floyd Mayweather,son,” Thurman said.

Thurman is one of the best in the welterweight division when healthy. If Thurman can get back into the ring and stay healthy for the next year or two, he might be able to sweep the table and beat all the top guys in Spence, Garcia, Porter, Amir Khan and Terence Crawford. If Thurman can get through all of those guys, he’ll be a wealthy man.

On the undercard of Thurman vs. Lopez, heavyweight contender Adam Kownacki (18-0, 14 KOs) wll be facing former heavyweight world title challenger Gerald Washington (19-2-1, 12 KOs) in a 10 round fight on FOX at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.