Via Chris Williams: Errol Spence Jr reacted to Keith Thurman’s win over Mario Barrios last Saturday night by saying “TAILOR,“Meaning ‘One Time’ was ‘tailored’ for him after seeing his less than impressive performance on FOX Sports PPV.
The showdown with Barrios was the first 147 lb WBC title elimination for Thurman, but he has one more knockout he must win before becoming mandatory for Errol Spence.
The bad news for Thurman is that for him to be the mandatory WBC he has to beat #1 Vergil Ortiz Jr (18-0, 18 KO) in the final title elimination match to become Spence’s mandatory. Ortiz is an excellent body puncher, and he will see how Thurman gets his body damaged by Barrios.
While Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) for the most part performed well, displaying excellent defensive and moving skills to win the 12th round with ease, he once again showed his weakness. is inability to lose muscle.
In the round of 16, Thurman was wounded by a shot from former 140-lb ‘regular’ WBA champion Barrios (26-2, 17 KOs) and had to take out his mouthpiece and run around the ring to avoid getting hit. fall.
IBF/WBC Welterweight Champion Spence (27-0.21 KOs) is a great bodybuilder, and he’ll target Thurman’s body. Thurman didn’t even try to disguise that he was wounded by Barrios last Saturday night.
It doesn’t look like Thurman won’t win the title against Spence anytime soon, though he did let boxing fans know after that bout that’s the direction he wants to go for his next bout.
The fighter that Thurman didn’t want was WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford. Thurman ONLY wants Errol Spence, but he has to fight against Yordenis Ugas.
Alternatively, Spence can choose to freeze Thurman so he knows what it feels like to be ignored.
However, there’s a chance Spence could change his mind about that and throw it to the needy Thurman just because if he didn’t make that easy money fight, someone else would send ‘One Time’ to retire.
Tailor
– Errol Spence (@ErrolSpenceJr) February 6, 2022
“We witnessed what happened to Barrios today with the nose and eyes he suffered. I had to endure the punches. We are trading and we are the real fighters in the ring,” said Keith Thurman at post-war press conference last Saturday night.
“I hope you guys enjoy what you saw tonight. It was a beautiful night of boxing, and I look forward to many more great fights. That’s what Keith Thurman is all about, creating the most exciting fights in today’s welterweight division.
“The warrior in me says, ‘Let, I want to be the champion. I want the winner,” Thurman said when asked if he wanted to take on the winner of the Spence vs. Yordenis Ugas or not.
“But there was a strange little technicality that happened to those who read the article that this is a title remover versus a title remover. I don’t know politics all the time. I’m just a performer.
“I feel that I deserve to be challenged against any world champion at any given time considering my background and everything that has happened in my career,
“But I feel very good to be back. So if I have to go into another fight, like I said, from good to great to champion, so be it. I am very happy to be back.
“I want to do what I haven’t done in the last two and a half years. Keith Thurman wants to be an active fighter. So I had to go back and talk to my team and see what was coming to the table through the networks, through Al Haymon, and just went with the flow.
“I just want to have a positive year and have more performances for the fans, and more performances for myself.
“But no matter what, if it happens this summer or if it happens in November or December, Keith Thurman is still well on his way to becoming a one-time heavyweight world champion, ‘ said Thurman.
