Keith “One Time” Thurman might not be back for a long time, but he is hoping to have a fun time.

The former unified welterweight titlist is back and wants the smoke at 154lbs, and said he felt the excitement when he swept through Brock Jarvis in Australia in March.

Jarvis did not last three rounds in their fight. 

Thurman hopes that that is the start of a progression up the rankings towards another title shot and, more importantly, for activity.

“I mean, it’s just good to be back out,” Thurman told BoxingScene, reflecting on his win. “Obviously the fans could see the excitement and the joy that I was exuberating… just walking into the ring… before the knockout… before the highlight finish. It’s just a great thing when you dedicate yourself to boxing like I have since my childhood. And I lived a great life of being a two-time world champion. But when you still got fight left in you, you want to fight. 

“I’ve had a lot of obstacles that I’ve had to face in my career, but I stayed very positive, always believing in the future. And 2025, we have some fights that are coming to the table to negotiate, and we kicked it off out there in Australia against Brock Jarvis. And yeah, I danced my way into the ring, and I danced my way out of the ring, man. So it felt great to be back into boxing. It just felt fun again, like when I was a young amateur and I fought for trophies, and it wasn’t about recognition and the world. 

“I just did my best to make my mommy and my daddy proud. Like, just less – less psychological pressure. When you’re a kid growing up, you don’t even know if boxing is going to be your career, you just know you’re doing a sport – you love it. And you want to win all the tournaments that you enter; you win some; you lose some, and you keep it moving.”

Thurman, 31-1 (23 KOs), hasn’t truly experienced the ‘lose some’ with only one career defeat. It came against Manny Pacquiao back in 2019, and he’s fought just twice since, defeating today’s WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios in 2022 and then Jarvis. 

There is still more to do, even though he knows that, at 36, many will have already written him off as a bit-part player in a loaded junior-middleweight division.

“As a pro, it’s really hard for fighters to come back sometimes after a certain loss,” Thurman explained. “Some fighters, it’s not a big deal; they lose, they fight again; they win some, they lose some; and they know that they have a certain style that’s entertaining. But other fighters with social media and everything today, they get that career loss, and it’s all, ‘He was a nobody, we told you he was a nobody’. And it can just be emotionally taxing, let alone the physicality of the sport. 

“You just never know. Based off of the articles; the write ups; the memes; all the little videos, there’s just so much happening in boxing right now. Everybody wants to do good. Nobody wants to do bad. But when you’re fighting the best, only one man can win. And it’s a tough, brutal sport. It always has been; always will be. But for me right now, I can care less about everybody. I know there’s a lot of people who doubt what Thurman can do, ‘What’s he gonna do?’, blah, blah, blah. I believe in myself – always have always will. And I’m just looking forward to this year, 2025. I kicked it off with Brock Jarvis. And now I’m looking forward to getting in tougher fights.” 

Asked whether he felt critics had been waiting for him to lose so they could make their voices heard, he said: “Well, they can keep waiting, baby. You know, something that I know and certain people in boxing know is there’s never been a day where somebody just stepped in the ring with Keith Thurman, beat me and said, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s like fighting [just] anybody’. ‘He’s like just another fighter.’ You know, I’ve always been a special fighter. I’ve always been a tough fight for the toughest fighters in the world. And that’s where a lot of my confidence comes from. 

“People forget when I was undefeated. I told the world, if you can beat me, beat me. I was never worried about being beaten because whoever beats this guy has got to be one hell of a fighter. I’ve never lost to lower-tier fighters. No matter how tough they are, no matter what country they come from, whether they’re right-handed or southpaw, just being a tough guy, being a good fighter, is never good enough to beat Keith Thurman. I’ve only lost to great fighters.” 

Thurman believes his showing in 2013 in Texas against Argentina’s Diego Chaves was as good as any of his other performances. 

He had his nose broken and absorbed plenty of bombs to outlast a fellow unbeaten fighter.

“That’s when I became the interim champion before I was world champion,” said Thurman. 

“And because it was for the interim title, the number-one position through the WBA, I think it was a scheduled 12-round fight, but I stopped him in the 10th round. So that fight was just good. I was 20 and 0 with 18 knockouts and he was 22 and 0 with 18 knockouts. I took out a very tough opponent –  undefeated opponent – and Paulie Malignaggi was part of the analytical team. And after that fight, he never said anything bad about me again because he saw first-hand. 

“I took out his mandatory. Diego Chaves was supposed to be Paulie’s mandatory at the time because Paulie was the champion until he got his loss to Adrien Broner. And I just think where I was at coming up in the ranks, I finally took the number-one position underneath the title holder. And I think from that point on, a lot of people understood that I don’t think anything is going to stop this kid from being champion of the world. I really remember the training camp, the game plan, the way we executed the game plan and it being a challenging fight. But I was able to persevere and still get the knockout victory.” 

That was 12 years before the victory over Jarvis, and  Thurman hopes big fights still lie ahead and are not consigned to the past. Asked whether he wants the likes of Sebastian Fundora, or Errol Spence, or if he could drop back down to welterweight to run it back with Barrios for the title, he remains open to all opportunities.

“Name, date, check, paper, send it,” he said. “It’s not hard, but a lot of these guys, they say what they want to say. It’s not easy to get the fights. If it was easy for me to get the fights in America, I would have. I’d already have my first comeback fight in America. I got two fights at the beginning, within the first six months of the year, boom; first six, seven months of the year being negotiated overseas. And then hopefully, by the end of the year, I can get one of the names that you said back in the ring – maybe a Fundora fight, maybe a title eliminator fight. 

“If I’m not fighting for a world title by the end of the year, it needs to at least be a mandated fight that it’s a title eliminator, so that after whoever wins gets to step up to Fundora or some world champion guaranteed, you know? For me, it’s a progressional thing. My last fight was scheduled for 10 rounds; went three. If we’re not fighting for a world title, then it needs to be a title eliminator. Just something. The proper progression, man.” 

Although he was happy not to have to cut so much weight against Jarvis, he would be open to a return to 147lbs, even if he doesn’t think Barrios will meet him again.

“Obviously, it’s easier to make weight at 54,” Thurman added. “There’ll be a stronger cut for 147, but I’ve done things methodically with my nutritionist for many, many, many years. So I do believe that, it’s hard to say, but I think mathematically, like when I stepped on the scale and I know how long I was cutting in my camp for my last fight, I kind of do feel like I could make 147. It’ll never be fun, that last little cut with the water weight and everything. But there’s just a part of me that always sees a welterweight inside of me. 

“One thing that Shawn Porter was trying to say when he was out there in Australia was, he was referencing my amateur days. So as an amateur, Shawn Porter was fighting at 165lbs and Keith Thurman was fighting at 152lbs. And these were the weight divisions at the time for our Olympic year. I started like my amateur career because I didn’t want to make 140 and they took away 147. I was competing at 152. And that’s why, for my Olympic trials, I had to fight [Demetrius] ‘Boo Boo’ Andrade, who clearly could have been a ‘54 pounder. And I could have easily been a ‘47 pounder, but they keep playing with the amateur weight classes and I don’t think it’s beneficial for the amateurs. They should just mirror the pros and prepare them for their professional careers. 

“Even when I was a young man, before I turned pro, I kind of was right there at 154, 152. So it’s very natural for me to fight at 154. I think I can keep a lot of my power. I think I can get a little bit of better rest and not put so much strain on the body. And we’ll see as the year continues, if we feel confident about this approach and fighting the bigger fighters; you get taller guys and bigger guys at 154. Naturally, Brock Jarvis wasn’t that, but naturally Tim Tszyu, Fundora, and a lot of these other guys, potentially [Jermell] Charlo, they’re bigger guys at 154 than what I’m used to at 147. 

“But it’s weird, you know, fighting Mario Barrios again – I don’t think he wants it. I know his manager doesn’t want it. They’re happy being champions. You know, one thing at 36 years old, I’m happy to bounce around the ring, collect the checks, and make good fights happen; decent fights happen. I could do more little soft tune-ups and easy fights if I wanted to, but I want to climb that ladder one more time and fight for that world title and try to pursue becoming a three-time world champion in my boxing career.” 

It comes down to opportunity and activity. Thurman didn’t want three years on the shelf. His biceps injury before the scheduled Tszyu fight was costly, but he is in a place where he wants to field offers, and will anticipate one from Australia no Tszyu has come through Joey Spencer.

“I’m willing to negotiate anything at this point in my career, because I love boxing, I want to be active, and I just want to go out with a bang,” Thurman added. 

“The politics and stuff tested my patience, you know, because I ran into a lot of politics when there’s a big shift happening as Showtime was falling out and things are shifting and things are out. The world is spinning, right? We’re in motion. Everything is shifting. One second, the dollar’s up, the dollar’s down; gold is up, gold is down, right? 

“The world is always in motion, economics, and, boxing on HBO, boxing on Showtime, ‘Who’s better, HBO or Showtime? HBO or Showtime?’. Oh, wait, there is no HBO; there is no Showtime. Like this is a shift. This is a transitional point in the sport of boxing. And this is like, without saying a lot, there’s been a lot of politics that has occurred in this time. And it was frustrating for me, because I wasn’t fully aware of what I actually was going through. It’s kind of like stepping outside and seeing a storm, but you didn’t get the weather report. And at the end of the day, so much time has passed that I’m able to look past all the things that were pissing me off. And just say, ‘Look, man, what do you want to do? Do you want to get back in the ring?’ And the answer was ‘Yes’. And I took the first opportunity they sent me. His name was Brock Jarvis. People say, ‘Why is Keith Thurman doing?’ They ain’t sending me a whole list of names, homie. All right. They gave me a simple name from a simple town. And I’ve said, I’m simply going to go get that bag. Believe that. And we did that. Mission accomplished. On to the next. 

“When you love boxing, when you don’t want to quit; when you don’t want to give in, you want that next fight. So for me, that’s why you hear this talk right now. Next fight. Next bag. Next check. Next opponent. Where are they? Who wants to fight Keith Thurman? Because Keith Thurman wants to fight this year. Who wants to fight Keith Thurman? When Keith Thurman lost to Manny Pacquiao, they don’t line up. They don’t line up for the toughest fight of their life. Who doesn’t have a title no more? They just don’t. They don’t line up for that one.”

But the mix at 154lbs is rich, and PBC has their fair share of attractive propositions for Thurman as he continues his progress. He wants to be in the mix with all of them.

“You know, all these guys, they can fight each other,” Thurman said, “They can fight this guy. We can pick this guy. He’s up and coming. He’s got a clean record, but he’s beatable. I’m gonna fight that guy. You know, it’s not everybody wants the legend. Thirty-six years old. ‘Okay, he’s an old dog, but he’s an old dog that’s still got bite.’ Do you want to fight him today? ‘Oh, let him get a little older.’ You know, so we’ll see, man. I’m not going to focus on what other people are trying to do in boxing. I’m going to focus on what I’m trying to do. And at 154, I’m just trying to come up in the ranks and hopefully, you know, preferably by the end of the year, the start of next year, you’ll see Keith Thurman going for the world title. And we’ll see. But for me, it’s more about a fight proposal. And then I just got to sit down with my team.”

Thurman might be headed back to Australia for Tszyu, but there could be work for the Floridian closer to home. He is listening and ready for offers, believing that the Thurman of 2025 has acquired knowledge that might make him a better fighter than he ever has been.

“I’m just more mature,” he said. “I’ve always had a good eye in boxing. I always understood certain things. I’ve always been at the top of the class ever since my amateur days. But it’s just what maturity does. And what knowledge does. I’ve just marinated in the sport. I know so much. I see so much. And there’s just a lot of that veteran kind of confidence of just knowing what it means to step into those ropes and commit yourself to fight night.”