Keith Thurman sees the upcoming undisputed welterweight championship between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. as a new lodestar for their generation.

It was recently announced that WBO titlist Crawford of Omaha, Nebraska, and WBA, WBC, IBF champion Spence of Desoto, Texas, will meet in the ring July 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The winner will be crowned the undisputed champion of the 147-pound division—a rarity in a fragmented sport.

Thurman, a former 147-pound titleholder, believes the winner will even earn some bragging rights over perhaps the greatest prizefighter of the past two decades: one Floyd Mayweather Jr.  

Mayweather, who retired in 2017 with a 50-0 record, unified titles across multiple divisions but never quite collected all four major belts in a single division. Mayweather himself has insisted that it was a greater challenge to hold onto several titles in two divisions simultaneously (147 and 150) than to become undisputed in a single division.  

“These are two undefeated champions,” Thurman said of Spence-Crawford in an interview with FightHubTV. “The real thing is that Thurman was not supposed to slip up in 2019. If I was an undefeated champion, we would’ve been unified titles together. Two champions of this caliber, undefeated, going to unify the entire division, doing something unprecedented, something that Floyd Mayweather never accomplished in his career.

“This is what our generation needs. They need that to gain the status. They’re both future Hall of Famers. But somebody’s just gonna have a few more words to say on their plaque at the end of the day. That’s what fighting is all about.”

Thurman, who was supposed to fight Spence earlier this year, said he is not too bothered by the fact that he is on the outside looking in as Spence and Crawford look to establish themselves for welterweight supremacy. The Clearwater, Florida native expects to return to the ring this summer.

“From that standpoint (the enormity of Spence-Crawford), you just can’t be upset,” Thurman said. “We gotta keep it moving. I’m just gonna do my job and I’m just gonna stay ready for the world of boxing.”

Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.