By Jake Donovan
While a press conference held Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles to formally announce his September 12 showdown with Andre Berto, there seemed to be greater concern over the fighters Floyd Mayweather isn’t facing.
Amir Khan and Shawn Porter were among the welterweights who were snubbed for the September 12 date at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather insists that the event will be the last fight of his illustrious career, leaving fans to hope that a stronger opponent would have been selected.
His most ardent supporters will find ways to list reasons as to why neither of the aforementioned deserve such an opportunity at this time. It’s a bit tougher to pick apart the buildup for Keith Thurman, however—unless of course your only argument is that the pound-for-pound and box office king has earned the right to choose as he pleases after beating Manny Pacquiao in the most celebrated event in boxing history.
The unbeaten welterweight titlist from Clearwater, Florida has been tabbed by many as one of the can’t miss stars of the future and has repeatedly called out Mayweather whenever the subject arises.
When the future Hall of Famer was pressed on the subject himself, the defending World welterweight champion switched to his promoter’s hat.
“Don’t really know too much about him,” Mayweather (48-0, 26KOs) told Showtime’s Brian Custer when asked about Thurman, who is coming off of an 8th round stoppage of Luis Collazo this past July in primetime on ESPN. “Seen him a couple of times.”
Prior to his headlining the first edition of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on ESPN, Thurman played the starring role in the first PBC show on any network. The 26-year old welterweight outpointed Robert Guerrero—a former titlist and past Mayweather in-ring victim—in the inaugural installment of PBC on NBC, with the bout hitting a peak audience of 4 million viewers.
Still his star on the rise isn’t enough to impress Mayweather, who instead would like to see him get down with a young fighter from the Mayweather Promotions stable.
“I think a good fight for him is Errol Spence,” Mayweather said of Thurman’s potential future.
Spence—an unbeaten welterweight from Texas who served on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Boxing team in London—is coming off of a 3rd round knockout win over Phil Lo Greco this past June on NBC. His next fight is slated for September 11 in Toronto-the night before Mayweather-Berto—against an opponent to be determined on a PBC on Spike TV broadcast.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox