By Edward Chaykovsky
WBA 'regular' welterweight champion Keith "One time" Thurman (24-0, 21KOs) finally got his man. For the last twelve months, Thurman was calling out several fighters - including former multi-division champion Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero (32-2-1, 18KOs). On March 7th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Thurman and Guerrero will collide in an NBC televised fight as part of Al Haymon's new 'Premier Boxing Champions' series.
Thurman made several statements last year about Guerrero "ducking" his challenges. Now that he's going to face Guerrero in a little over a month, he explained those statements and why he made them.
"Most ducking that occurs in the sport of boxing is political, whether it be on the promoter's end, whether it be on the manager's end, or whether it be on the trainer's end. Or, even the fighter's end. Everybody has a reason to go the route that they go in the world of boxing," Thurman said.
"I've said this before in my statements. I've said a lot about people who have avoided me, but at the end of the day I'm truly not mad at anybody because we're all in it for the same reasons. We're all in it to have the career that we want and to put food on our tables for our families. This is a career. This is a sport."
"So the pride in the fighter in me says, 'Let's all fight,' but I know the business man in me and the business man inside the rest of these fighters, them and their team are going to strategically plan out their careers. And it's taking a little long, but here I am. Me and 'The Ghost'. He's known that I've been knocking on his door. We've been trying to get this fight for a while. He's ready for it. They took their time but now they feel like it is the time."
