By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Keith Thurman against the Kell Brook-Errol Spence Jr. winner is one of the fights fans will want to see most later this year.

Thurman indicated after his split-decision defeat of Danny Garcia on Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center that he wants that fight, too. The WBA/WBC world welterweight champion just doesn’t know when would be a realistic time to expect that unification fight to take place.

Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) will make a mandatory defense of his IBF welterweight championship against Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) on May 27 or June 3 in Sheffield, England, Brook’s hometown.

Showtime will televise the Brook-Spence bout. Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager for Showtime Sports, said before Thurman beat Garcia that he would want the premium-cable network to televise a bout between the Thurman-Garcia and Brook-Spence winners.

The timing could work out well if Thurman fights twice this year, as he predicted Saturday night. Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs), of Clearwater, Florida, also stated that he could make a mandatory defense – presumably against the WBA’s “regular” welterweight title-holder, Lamont Peterson (35-3-1, 17 KOs) – or take a “stay-busy” fight of some sort when he returns to the ring.

“Of course that’s a great fight, and fighting the winner is important,” Thurman said in reference to Brook-Spence. “But when will it manifest? I don’t know. … Do I want to see three world titles strapped around me? Of course I do. Do I wanna see three world titles strapped around any one of the welterweights in the welterweight division? Yes, I do. Why? Because Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman is not just a boxer, but a boxing fan.

“And the world of boxing deserves history. We live a life to make history. Countries, nations. I mean, Trump is president people. Come on. History, OK? History. Barack got in office, two terms. History. All right? So it’s been a long time since we’ve seen an undisputed champion in the welterweight division, right? It will manifest. I just can’t promise you guys when right here, right now, at this podium today.”

The 28-year-old Thurman is open to a rematch against Philadelphia’s Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs), though there might not be much consumer demand to watch them fight again. Though theirs was a matchup between unbeaten welterweight champions, Thurman-Garcia didn’t deliver the type of sustained action in their highly anticipated, 12-round fight that would warrant paying them seven figures to fight again.

“To be honest, I’m not sure [what’s next],” Thurman said. “His father [Angel Garcia] said no rematch. Danny might want a rematch. The fans might want a rematch. Who knows, man? There’s a lot out there, but real talk, real negotiations, I have no clue, man. I wanna keep giving you guys great fights. I produced two, back-to-back. Those who really are in the sport of boxing know that there is an opportunity for me to take a mandatory that we did not have to really address at the end of the day. And another reason why is because that’s not the fight that I really wanted.

“Um, I can’t say what I want right now, because I got what I want. So right now, I’m gonna sit back, reflect. And I will be stepping back in the ring sometime later on this year. I’m not gonna do the whole one-fight performance [in 2017]. It’s unnecessary. But we’re gonna have to see what manifests. There might be some form of a rematch fight. There might be some form of a stay-busy fight. Then there might be a great fight in the near future because the welterweight division is a great division. And the motto stays the same. ‘I’ve got an 0, and I’m not afraid to let it go. If you can beat me, beat me.’ ”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.