Keith Thurman returns after a three-year layoff to fight junior middleweight Brock Jarvis on March 12 at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia.
Fans believe Thurman’s reason for getting off the couch after another long hiatus is that he smell Saudi money and wants to get in on the action while he still can.
Unreliable Thurman
The 36-year-old ‘One Time’ Thurman is still relatively young in boxing terms, but he is so unreliable because of his fragile body. Even if he gets the ring, when is the next time you’re going to see him? 3 years? Unlike other fighters, Thurman doesn’t live the life.
Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) needs to win this fight against the 27-year-old Jarvis (22-1, 20 KOs) to have a chance to potentially be picked up by Turki Al-Sheikh to face one of his cards. Although Thurman looked good in his last fight, after taking a 2 1/2-year layoff to beat Mario Barrios in 2022, he may not have similar results this time around. He is no longer 33.
“He (Thurman) hasn’t fought since 2022. I don’t know how serious he is. Keith has been a part-time boxer for the last six years (correction: eight). One fight a year. No fights a year. I don’t know what he wants to achieve to come back. I don’t know what he has left,” Ade Oladipo said DAZN Boxing about Keith Thurman making a comeback after three years out of the ring to face Brock Jarvis on March 12 in Sydney, Australia.
“He is a name, he is a presence. He can fight with some rise. Keith is probably looking at the 147 section and thinking, ‘That’s pretty thin. I can go in there and suddenly make money at Riyadh Season and do damage.
‘I lost interest in the Keith Thurman thing a few years ago when he stopped fighting, and I wanted him to fight. I was desperate for him to fight and he just wouldn’t fight. My interest in Keith Thurman was lost for three or four years.”
Everyone lost interest in Thurman many years ago when he stopped being a full-time boxer after his close 12-round victory over Danny Garcia on March 4, 2017. Thurman was injured in that fight and suffered an elbow injury. He then sat out of the ring for a year and a half, licking his wounds and doing nothing.
Thurman’s last 3 fights
Mario Barrios: February 5, 2022
Manny Pacquiao: July 20, 2019
Josesito Lopez: January 26, 2019
Eyes on Saudi money?
“If you’re Keith Thurman and he hasn’t fought in a couple of years, he’s probably thinking, ‘You know what? Let’s just do a camp and see how I feel. Let’s go.’ So, if I’m Keith, I can see why he does it, but I just don’t know if it’s there anymore,” Ade said.
“Again, if you haven’t fought in a few years, is it still there? I don’t know. I hope it’s because he’s exciting. He talks a lot, but let’s see if it’s there. I don’t know if Brock Jarvis will prove it’s there, but let’s see. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt, but let’s see,” says Ade.
Thurman is obviously hoping that Turki Al-Sheikh will notice him and want to pay him millions to fight on some of his Riyadh season cards. At 36, Thurman is young compared to some of the fighters on Turki’s cards. He is younger than Deontay Wilder and Terence Crawford.
However, ‘One Time’ Thurman is so unreliable due to his injury problems, and it would be a waste of time for him to be used by Turki on his cards. If Keith can’t get through training camps without an injury, it’s pointless to use him. I would be very surprised if Thurman makes it through his fight against Brock Jarvis on March 12th without suffering an injury that causes the fight to be postponed or canceled.
