WBA 'regular' welterweight champion Keith 'One Time' Thurman (25-0, 21KOs) has taken no shortcuts in preparing for his upcoming defense against Luis Collazo (36-6, 19KOs) on Saturday night from the USF Sundome in Tampa, Florida. The match headlines the ESPN debut of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).
Collazo is viewed by a significant portion of the public as a huge underdog, especially given the fact that he's one fight removed from a one-sided beating at the hands of Amir Khan.
Thurman is no dummy. He realizes, and admits, that a victory over Collazo is not going to significantly affect his current standing in the division.
At the same time, Thurman has to win impressively.
Last December, he pulled out a less than spectacular performance against Leonard Bundu. The lopsided decision victory affected his momentum. Thurman was able to regain some of that footing in March, after headlining the first ever PBC broadcast on NBC. That night he won a dominating twelve round unanimous decision over Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Should he struggle against Collazo or suffer some adversity - he knows the critics will swarm all over him.
"There is not a lot for me to gain [in beating Collazo]. I don't see a lot for me to gain. But I have a lot to lose, depending on how the performance ends up. People can call me a hype job - you guys know the sport of boxing. At the end of the day though - you try to take one victory at a time, one training camp at a time, one opponent at a time - and keep moving to the top," Thurman explained.
"I'm trying to create a career for myself - but not just any career. I'm trying to create a legacy. In the midst of having great fights, sometimes you just have 'a fight.'"