By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Even Bob Arum pumped the brakes on a potential welterweight showdown between Terence Crawford and Keith Thurman.
Crawford mentioned moving up from 140 pounds to 147 to challenge Thurman immediately after dominating Felix Diaz for 10 rounds Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. After discussing preferable fights against Manny Pacquiao and fellow super lightweight champion Julius Indongo, Crawford told HBO’s Max Kellerman, “Keith Thurman or whoever, let’s go. I’ll move up and fight anybody.”
Boxing fans who want Crawford to face greater challenges in the welterweight division would welcome a fight against Thurman with open arms. Arum, Crawford’s promoter, just can’t envision that happening any time soon because Thurman underwent surgery recently on his right elbow.
“Well, you don’t call out Keith Thurman when the guy has just gone in for an operation and the guy can’t fight for six months,” Arum told a group of reporters at ringside Saturday night. “You know, Keith Thurman’s an excellent fighter. I’d fight Keith Thurman with his bad elbow.”
The 28-year-old Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC), of Clearwater, Florida, has developed into arguably the best welterweight in boxing. He added the WBC 147-pound championship to his WBA crown March 4, when he out-boxed Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) to win a split decision in a 12-round title unification fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Thurman announced Friday afternoon, however, that’ll be out of action for at least six months while he recovers from surgery April 19 at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York to remove calcium deposits from his right elbow. A month after the procedure, Thurman is taking part in a rehabilitation program to regain strength in his right arm.
The 29-year-old Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs), an Omaha, Nebraska, native who has won world titles at 135 and 140 pounds, is expected to box Indongo in his next fight. Arum said he wants to Crawford to return sometime this summer against Namibia’s Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs), who holds the IBF, IBO and WBA junior welterweight titles.
Indongo attended Crawford’s relatively easy victory over the Dominican Republic’s Diaz (19-2, 9 KOs) on Saturday night. Negotiations are expected to begin soon for Crawford-Indongo, which would be a rare full championship unification fight.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.