By Edward Chaykovsky
WBA 'regular' welterweight champion Keith "One Time" Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) is gearing up for a homecoming when he faces former world champion Luis Collazo (36-6, 19 KOs) on Saturday, July 11 in the main event of the inaugural Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN from the USF Sun Dome in Tampa.
Thurman has been on a roll with dominating performances and most of the top fighters at 147-pounds are avoiding his path. Earlier this year, he headlined the debut edition of PBC on NBC, with a bruising win over former multi-division champion Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Collazo is a big underdog, with most fans still retaining a fresh memory of last May's one-sided defeat at the hands of Amir Khan. Collazo has since returned to the ring to notch a stay busy win.
Fellow Brooklyn fighter Paulie Malignaggi says Collazo is far from an easy fight for Thurman. He feels Collazo's style was tailor-made for Khan, but that won't be the case with Thurman.
"I think it's a good fight. I think Thurman continues to rise to the occasion and showing us that he's got the goods, but Collazo is a tough guy to deal with. Styles make fights. No pure boxer is going to give Amir Khan trouble. That's the way I feel about it and that's why Collazo was dominated in the Khan fight. In reality, nobody handles Collazo very well and Thurman is not going to handle Collazo very easily either," Malignaggi told BoxingScene.com/Be Real TV.
"It's a good fight and the people who are judging Collazo on the Khan performance should really understand that styles make fights and that's how boxing works. It's a shame if people are complaining about this matchup because it's a good matchup. Collazo always comes to fight, he always comes to bring it and I think he will test Thurman in a lot of ways. Collazo is one of the most mentally strong fighters that I've ever been around, he's a very smart fighter and I think it's a solid fight."