Via Adam Baskin: Conor Benn feels that former unified welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman doesn’t want any such smoke because he’s a “high-risk, low-reward” boxer to him.
As far as Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) is concerned, 33-year-old Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) could also retire from this sports career.
Benn sees through Thurman’s reason for not fighting him by stating that he has no interest in fighting saplings at this stage in his 15-year career. Those are just words.
Thurman is trying to save himself from a second professional defeat, which, at this point, would jeopardize his chance to land a big-money fight with unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. or Terence Crawford.
“How do I defeat Thurman? Regarding flammability. I am too young, too strong, too fresh and too fast,” said Conor Benn above social media when asked how he could defeat Keith Thurman.
“I believe Thurman will be filled. There’s a reason he doesn’t bite, and you can’t really blame him, to be honest. Thurman can retire too.
“He says he’s not fighting for zero crops, but yes, he wants the big names,” Benn continued. “Listen, I’m probably one of the biggest names in heavyweight.
“Anyway, I’m definitely the frontrunner. So the fact that he didn’t want to be in that fight surprised me a bit, but obviously, risk-reward to me, he just didn’t see that.
“Listen, anyone can get it. When people make you like your fear and all that. You don’t hear me shouting from the rooftops, ‘Jose Ramirez is scared.’ He turned down a million dollars, so he was scared. Keith Thurman was scared. [Yordenis] Ugas is scared.
“Those who say, ‘Oh, he’s scared,’ it’s just to sell the fight. Like the other plums calling me and going, ‘He’s afraid of me.’ They’re talking trash,” Benn said.
“They are not afraid. None of them are scared, man. You know what I mean?
“The matches are going to be announced at this rate, man,” Benn said of his thrilling bout against middleweight Chris Eubank Jr on October 8 in the UK. “Yes, his pen is lost. It’s gone. I think he kicked it under the table and dropped it somewhere.”
