Undefeated welterweight contender Errol Spence (21-0, 18 KOs) is confident that he can beat WBA 147lb champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) when the two fighters eventually face each other in the future. It’s unclear when Spence and Thurman will face each other though.
Spence recently defeated Leonard Bundu by a 6th round last August in their International Boxing Federation title eliminator bout to pick out a mandatory challenger to IBF welterweight champion Kell “Special K” Brook, who recently moved up to 160 to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in a unsuccessful title challenge. Brook isn’t sure yet whether he’ll move back down to 147 or not.
Bundu gave Thurman problems in losing to him by a 12 round unanimous decision in their fight in 2014. Thurman won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but it was definitely a tough fight for him.
Spence said this to Fighthype.com:
“Bundu is a very awkward. I did my thing. I think I did better than Keith Thurman did. Yeah, I can beat Keith Thurman. I feel like I can bet anybody, especially 147 division,” said Spence.
It would be great if Spence and Thurman could face each other, because a lot of boxing fans would like to see that fight. They’re both managed by Al Haymon. He could make the fight if he wanted to. It’s probably not a fight that will be happening anytime soon. Spence has been interested in fighting Thurman since 2015, when Floyd Mayweather Jr. offered Thurman to fight Spence for one of his titles.
Mayweather said he would vacate his WBC title and let Spence and Thurman fight over it. Spence was game, but Thurman wasn’t interested. He wanted to get a fight against Mayweather. Thurman felt that Spence didn’t have the experience at the time to fight him. Perhaps now that Spence has a couple of more wins under his belt, Thurman might think differently.
If Brook vacates his IBF 147lb title rather than defends it, then Spence will wind up facing unbeaten Konstantin Ponomarev (30-0, 13 KO). That’s a fight that Spence would be hugely favored in. The 23-year-old Ponomarev is a good fighter though. He recently defeated Brand Solomon by a 10 round split decision last April. The one major negative for Ponomarev is his lack of punching power. His KO percentage is a mere 43% compared to Spence’s 86%. The power difference between the two of them is HUGE.
Ponomarev took major shots in the Solomon fight, and he was able to walk through them, but he didn’t look good with the shots that he was getting hit with. If that was Spence who was throwing them, it would be hard to see Ponomarev taking the punches without getting hurt. Ponomarev is trained by Abel Sanchez, the same trainer that IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is trained by.