By Keith Idec
Keith Thurman would welcome an opportunity to fight Manny Pacquiao later this year.
The WBA “super” world welterweight champion is fairly certain, though, that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will come out of retirement for a lucrative rematch with the Filipino legend. Thurman estimated on a conference call Tuesday that he is “90 percent” sure Mayweather will end a third retirement to fight Pacquiao again.
Thurman read Mayweather’s silence Saturday night in Las Vegas as the undefeated five-division champion commencing negotiations with adviser Al Haymon and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza. Mayweather was interviewed during Showtime’s pay-per-view telecast of Pacquiao’s victory over Adrien Broner, but boxing’s biggest star of this generation wouldn’t commit to a return to the ring.
“Floyd’s silent talk is really him saying, ‘Give me a statement, not a question, of $150 million up front,’ whatever the numbers may be,” Thurman explained.
“It just needs to be pleasing to the ears before Floyd will consider it. But it’s really hard for any human being to not take $100 million or greater for a 36-minute performance. I believe if Floyd were to make half of what he did against Pacquiao the first time, it’s still worth it. It’s still worth it, man. They’re both past their primes and Floyd is just a very slick boxer. Even though he does throw one punch at a time, similar to what Adrien Broner did, he just does it way more effectively, he has better defense, better movement throughout the ring, with the ring awareness.”
The unbeaten Thurman, who’ll face Josesito Lopez on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, predicted a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch would unfold similarly to their heavily hyped fight in May 2015. Las Vegas’ Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), who’ll turn 42 on February 24, won that largely dull 12-round welterweight title bout by unanimous decision over Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs) at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“He beat him once, I think he would beat him twice,” Thurman said. ‘You know, and I think Manny Pacquiao would be able to retire happily after such a paycheck. So that’s why I say the likelihood, in my opinion, is 90 percent. Of course, I would love to be wrong because that would open up doors for me. Hopefully it would open up doors for me to negotiate with the legend, Manny Pacquiao. But we’ll see. There’s tons of opportunities at 147, so regardless I still have a beautiful job.”
Pacquiao owns the WBA world welterweight title and should be ordered to fight Thurman, who’s the WBA’s true champion at 147 pounds. Whether the WBA actually attempts to clean up its welterweight championship mess remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC) is wrapping up preparation for his first fight in nearly two years Saturday night.
Surgery on his right elbow and a subsequent injury to his left hand have helped keep Thurman out of action for 22 months. The Clearwater, Florida, native hasn’t fought since defeating Danny Garcia (34-2, 20 KOs) by split decision in their welterweight title unification fight in March 2017 at Barclays Center.
The 30-year-old Thurman is listed by the William Hill sports book as a 50-1 favorite over the 34-year-old Lopez (36-7, 19 KOs, 1 NC), of Riverside, California. The Thurman-Lopez bout will headline a “PBC on FOX” tripleheader that’ll begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
