Keith Thurman returns after a three-year layoff to fight junior middleweight Brock Jarvis on March 12 at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia.
Fans believe Thurman’s reasoning for getting off the couch after another one of his extended hiatuses is that he smells like Saudi money and wants to get in on the action while he still can.
Unreliable Thurman
The 36-year-old ‘One Time’ Thurman is still relatively young in boxing terms, but he is so unreliable because of his frail body. Even if he makes it to the ring, when is the next time you’re going to see him? 3 years? Unlike other fighters, Thurman doesn’t live the life.
Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) needs to win this fight against the 27-year-old Jarvis (22-1, 20 KOs) to have a chance to potentially be picked up by Turki Al-Sheikh for to fight on one of his cards. Although Thurman looked good in his last fight, coming off a 2 1/2-year layoff to beat Mario Barrios in 2022, he may not have similar results this time around. He’s not 33 anymore.
“He [Thurman] hasn’t fought since 2022. I don’t know how serious he is. Keith has been a part-time boxer for the past six years [correction: eight]. One match a year. No matches per year. I don’t know what he wants to achieve by coming back. I don’t know what he has left,” Ade Oladipo told DAZN Boxing about Keith Thurman, who made a comeback after three years out of the ring to face Brock Jarvis on March 12 in Sydney, Australia.
“He’s a name, he’s a presence. He could fight some up-and-comers. Keith probably looks at the 147 division and thinks, ‘It’s pretty thin. I can go in there and suddenly make some money at Riyadh Season and do some damage.
“I kind of lost interest in the Keith Thurman thing a couple of years ago when he stopped fighting and I wanted him to fight. I was desperate for him to fight and he just didn’t want to fight. My interest in Keith Thurman has been lost for three or four years.”
Everyone lost interest in Thurman years ago when he stopped being a full-time boxer after his narrow 12-round split decision victory over Danny Garcia on March 4, 2017. Thurman was injured in that fight, suffering an elbow injury. He sat out of the ring for a year and a half after that, licking his wounds and doing nothing.
Thurman’s last 3 fights
Mario Barrios: February 5, 2022
Manny Pacquiao: July 20, 2019
Josesito Lopez: January 26, 2019
Eyes on Saudi money?
“If you’re Keith Thurman and he hasn’t fought in a couple of years, he’s probably thinking, ‘You know what? Let’s take a camp and see how I feel. Let’s go.’ So if I’m Keith, I can see why he does it, but I just don’t know if it’s there anymore,” Ade said.
“Again, when you haven’t fought in a few years, is it still there? I don’t know. I hope it’s because he’s exciting. He talks a lot, but let’s see if it’s there. I don’t know if Brock Jarvis will prove it’s there, but let’s see. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, but let’s see,” Ade said.
Thurman is of course hoping that Turki Al-Sheikh will take notice and pay him millions to fight on some of his Riyadh season cards. At 36, Thurman is young compared to some of the fighters on Turki’s card. He is younger than Deontay Wilder and Terence Crawford.
However, ‘One Time’ Thurman is so unreliable due to his injury issues and it would be a waste of time for him to be used by Turki on his cards. If Keith can’t make it through training camps without suffering an injury, it’s pointless to use him. I would be very surprised if Thurman makes it to his fight against Brock Jarvis on March 12th without suffering an injury that causes the fight to be postponed or canceled.