The last time Keith “One Time” Thurman stepped into the ring was on July 20, 2019 a little over a year ago to this day, and he put his undefeated record and WBA welterweight title on the line against the great Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao.
Thurman came into the fight confident that he would be able to defeat the much smaller and older 8-division world champion with T-Rex arms but he was shocked by a first round knockdown and put in a real tough fight with the 40-year-old Filipino southpaw.
Thurman and Pacquiao fought hard and kept the fight competitive, but the Filipino Senator came out on top with the split decision victory and made history as the oldest fighter to win a welterweight championship.
After the fight Thurman gave credit to Pacquiao but still felt he did enough to win a close decision.
Thurman insisted he wasn’t one hundred percent heading into his fight with Pacquiao and believes poor weight management was a big factor as well as pre-fight injury to his hand that made it difficult for him to really put power in his punches.
Thurman admit to cutting 35-lbs just to make the 147-lbs limit for the Pacquiao fight and it took away from the focus of a proper game plan and hurt his stamina.
The former unified welterweight champion’s desire to regain his belt against Pacquiao has grown stronger during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With a lot of time to recollect and study his fight with Pacquiao and think about the mistakes he made leading up to the fight, he believes he will be able to beat Pacquiao convincingly in a rematch and is still yearning for revenge over the only man to hand him his first professional loss.
On his official Instagram, Thurman tagged NBA star Lebron James and posted various pictures from his fight with Pacquiao and called for a Pacquiao-Thurman 2 match.
@kingjames when you lose game 7 and you wait all yr for your get back. You pick the time and place I’ll be there Pacquiao Thurman 2 – @keithonetimethurman
Pacquiao isn’t interested in a rematch with Thurman, but has set his sights on Mikey Garcia, Errol Spence Jr, Terence Crawford or the long shot rematch with Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. who is currently rumored to be fighting another Japanese fighter in an exhibition match in Tokyo, Japan.
