Keith Thurman Set to Return Against Unlikely Opponent

Keith Thurman Set to Return Against Unlikely Opponent

By Gary Kittilsen

Keith “One Time” Thurman has been out of the ring for 18 months, side-lined with various injuries since he unified the WBA & WBC welterweight titles by outpointing Danny Garcia in March of 2017.

He has flirted with a return the ring for almost a year, he informed WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman last October that he was going to be back in January of 2018 and fight three times this year. Well, its already September and Thurman hasn’t fought yet, so it appears that fighting three times is certainly not going to happen. However, it looks like 2018 will not be a total loss for Thurman, it looks like he has a return date for later this year on the Deontay Wilder/Tyson Fury undercard.

Several names have been floated around as a possible tune un for Thurman’s return including Josesito Lopez, Jesse Vargas, and Andre Berto. All of those are solid names, however, it appears that none of them will be getting the shot at the WBA champ. Six-Time former world champ Zab Judah Tweeted “I did it 6x already here goes #7 #TeamJudah #WeWillWin” The tweet was a confirmation of the rumour that he and Thurman will square off for the WBA welterweight strap. A strap that Judah previously held. Judah won the WBA/WBC/IBF welterweight belts in 2005 by outpointing then-champ Cory Spinks and then defended all three belts against Cosme Rivera before losing the WBA and WBC belts to Carlos Baldomir and then losing the IBF belt to Floyd Mayweather.

Judah is a six-time world champ in two different weight classes, he has put together a solid resume, beating high-level fighters like Junior Witter, Terron Millett, Cory Spinks, and Lucas Matthysse. Despite the numerous high quality wins, Zab has come up short in his attempts at the truly, truly elite fighters, losing to Kostya Tszyu, Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, and Danny Garcia. Judah has fought just twice since losing a decision to Paulie Malignaggi in 2013, most recently taking a wide decision over a fighter named Noel Mejia Rincon in Canada back in January of this year.

The now 40-year old Judah came as a shock to most fight fans, many weren’t even aware that Judah was still an active fighter. Thurman. who has fought just twice in the last three years, said he wasn’t going to come back against anyone in the top 10 in the welterweight division and Thurman certainly delivered on that promise. The welterweight division has been red hot in Keith Thurman’s options. The other three champs, Shawn Porter, Errol Spence, and Terence Crawford have all put forth top-notch performances in recent months. Thurman fighting a 40-year-old Zab Judah will do little to convince his critics that Thurman is back and will be a threat to the champions in the division.