The Many Obstacles to Boxing Stardom Won't Faze Keith Thurman

Keith Thurman speaks with a refreshing sort of humility and candor that’s all too absent from many professional prizefighters in his position.

He’s not afraid to speak his mind about the sport, his career and some of the things that bug him.

“Boxing is nothing but politics. If there wasn’t any politics it’d be a street fight,” Thurman said on a conference call to promote his Premier Boxing Champions fight with Luis Collazo Saturday night, the inaugural PBC card on ESPN.

“It’s an industry. It’s a business. It takes time. I’ve learned that.”

Thurman has been outspoken, along with many fans and media, about how his career has been handled by boxing’s savior/supervillain (depending on your perspective) Al Haymon.

One Time has certainly had his share of ups and downs in the three years since his career achieved mainstream attention.

His matches with faded former champion Julio Diaz and virtually unknown Leonard Bundu were widely criticized, but his high-impact thrashing of Robert Guerrero in March served as a reminder of his elite-level skills and marketability.

Thurman now gets the chance to headline PBC’s first show on ESPN—which is long known for producing memorable cards on its Friday Night Fights series—against a tough opponent but one who doesn’t make fans salivate.

He has one message: Be patient.

“I’ve been on HBO, Showtime, NBC and now ESPN. It’s all a little different. I’m building my name, becoming more popular,” Thurman said. “It’s really just a journey. Every fighter bears weight on their shoulders. But it’s not weight we can’t handle. If it was weight we couldn’t handle we wouldn’t be in the position we’re in.

“A lot of people are just impatient in this sport. It takes time for big fights to brew up and to happen. Me and my team, we take one fight at a time.”

Collazo is a former welterweight titlist who is accustomed to playing the underdog role.

He’s been in with a slew of high-level foes, including Ricky Hatton, Shane Mosley, Andre Berto and Amir Khan. He has come up short in each of those fights—controversially against Hatton and Berto—but he’s a hard worker and like, Thurman, one of the sport’s humble and classy figures.

The Brooklyn, New York, native hasn’t been stopped since 2002, when he was a 20-year-old prospect, but he hasn’t fought anyone with Thurman’s devastating punching power before or since.

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One Time understands the nature of the beast here.

He knows that Collazo is going to bring his best game down to the USF Dome in Tampa, Florida, just over a 20-minute drive from the champion’s hometown of Clearwater, and do everything he can to make him look bad and produce a monumental upset.

“I still believe my punching power is above anybody that he’s fought. A lot of people watch tape, they watch this, they watch that. But they don’t know how the punches feel,” Thurman cautioned his foe.

Thurman has been extended 12 rounds in his last two fights—the first time in his 25-fight career that he’s been the full championship distance in back-to-back fights.

Bundu probably never should’ve gotten there. He was dropped in the opening round and played keep away for the rest of the fight before losing a shutout unanimous decision.

Guerrero certainly earned the right to hear the final bell; however, given his most recent fight—a life-and-death battle with journeyman Aaron Martinez—we can question his long-term viability as a result.

He didn’t look like he was close to fully recovered, and you can lay that right at the feet of a 36-minute clubbing at the hands of one of boxing’s most powerful punchers.

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“At this level no fighter is coming to get knocked out. They know what they’re up against. They know they’re up against a dangerous fighter. They’re trying to box smart and be crafty,” Thurman said of his last two fights going the distance.

“We want the knockouts. But at the end of the day we still just want to be a champion. We’ll do whatever it takes to stay champion.”

Thurman showed in both of those fights that he can be more than your prototypical one-trick pony. There have been plenty of fighters throughout boxing history who could knock down brick walls with their fists.

But it’s how you react the first time someone can stand up to your power that determines how far you’ll go in this game.

If you don’t have a Plan B, you’re not all that hard to figure out.

Thurman showed an ability to adapt on the fly against opponents who were difficult to put down and impossible to keep there.

He remains grounded, humble and hardworking through it all—just a young man living the dream.

“To a degree it’s a struggle. It’s a grind, but I look forward to the grind. I enjoy the grind. My whole life all I wanted to do is be a professional boxer. And here we are. WBA world champion. I’m a young boy whose dreams came true, and I’m just trying to fulfill all my dreams.”

Kevin McRae is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @McRaeWrites. All quotes were obtained firsthand.