By Keith Idec
Keith Thurman is fully focused on Jesus Soto Karass, yet very interested in what’ll occur after they fight Saturday night in San Antonio.
The undefeated welterweight from Clearwater, Fla., expects Adrien Broner to defeat Marcos Maidana in the main event of Showtime’s four-fight broadcast from Alamodome. And if Cincinnati’s Broner (27-0, 22 KOs) successfully defends his WBA welterweight title against Argentina’s Maidana (34-3, 31 KOs), Thurman hopes he gets the opportunity to beat Broner in his next fight.
“Whenever I come across fans, every other person asks me if I’m going to fight Broner,” Thurman told BoxingScene.com. “A lot of people are wondering if me and Adrien Broner are going to go toe-to-toe in 2014. Right now there’s no answer to that. We’ve both got our own fights, but I look forward to it if it does happen.”
The hard-hitting Thurman demonstrated diversity during his last fight, an impressive 10th-round knockout victory over previously undefeated Diego Chaves (22-1, 18 KOs) on July 27 in San Antonio. Beating the resurgent Soto Karass (28-8-3, 18 KOs, 1 NC) would give Thurman three impressive wins in 2013 and leave him in prime position to box Broner.
The 25-year-old Thurman (21-0, 19 KOs, 1 NC) won the interim WBA welterweight title against Chaves and is ranked No. 1 by the Venezuelan sanctioning organization. If Broner overcomes Maidana, he’ll have to meet Thurman next year or risk getting stripped of his WBA 147-pound championship.
“I’m pretty sure Adrien Broner hasn’t faced anybody my size or with my power,” Thurman said. “So I think that’s one of the reasons the fans are looking forward to the fight or are asking about the fight. They understand that he’s skilled, but he’s a welterweight now and they want to see if he can get through me.”
Thurman thinks Broner will get through the determined Maidana, but not easily.
“I’m expecting Maidana to come hard at Broner,” Thurman said. “He’s going to come in aggressive, might even be a little rough. I’ve seen Maidana hip-shot people and things like that when he gets frustrated. So we’ll see.
“It really depends on what Broner does. Is he going to stand there, like he did against Paulie [Malignaggi]? Is he going to move his feet a little bit more? We’ll find out, but I figure Broner will use his speed, his skills and I look at the fact that Amir Khan [dropped] Maidana with a body shot. I believe if Amir can do it, then Broner should, too.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
