With Tim Tszyu set to headline a PBC card in Las Vegas alongside Keith Thurman, the gross mismatch between the two fighters was entirely ignored by Tszyu’s promoter, George Rose of No Limit Boxing, during a recent joint interview the fighter and promoter held. With the name recognition that Thurman appears to bring despite his inactivity, Tszyu and Rose have stated their intentions to no longer necessarily look to be competitive as they aim to rake in the biggest (or most profitable) fights possible.
George Rose’s assertion that Erickson Lubin (26-2, 18 KO’s) had withdrawn from negotiations sums up the rather questionable path chosen by Team Tszyu that culminated in Keith Thurman (30-1, 22 KO’s) becoming Tim Tszyu’s (24-0, 17 KO’s) first opponent of the new year. Lubin and his trainer, Kevin Cunningham, claimed they had not withdrawn at all, thus laying doubt on Rose’s claims given they are being disputed by Lubin’s team.
Furthermore, there is everything to suggest Thurman was chosen for reasons other than competitiveness, as George Rose himself would allude to during an interview with Sporting News Australia.
“Keith Thurman’s a guy that has been in only big fights,” Rose explained in response as to how Thurman came to be Tszyu’s opponent.
“You look at his resume; the only fight that he lost was a split-decision with Manny Pacquiao. If that’s your only loss on your resume, you’re doing alright. He’s won world titles, he talks the talk, he got that American flash, and that’s what we want.“
It appears that being competitive is no longer on the cards for Tim Tszyu and his team who have chosen a semi-retired Keith Thurman to face. As the WBO super welterweight champion, Tszyu had multiple options to face aside from just Erickson Lubin; Josh Kelly (15-1-1, 8 KO’s) is currently ranked #1 in the WBO’s super welterweight/junior middleweight rankings, and could have potentially been available given his fight occurred last in December―which would mean he had enough time to recover and prepare given his last match ended in a third-round knockout (KO) win.
However, Team Tszyu appears to be looking for different targets at this stage of Tszyu’s career; big or household names, regardless of apparently their activity. This was made somewhat apparent when George Rose delved into the process of how Thurman came to be chosen following the alleged withdrawal of Lubin from negotiations to fight Tszyu.
“As I said. Tim [Tszyu] said he wants names,” Rose stated.
“We want to go to America and make a statement. This is his [Tszyu’s] first fight in Las Vegas; it has to be a statement fight. Keith Thurman’s a guy who’s been in big fights, so the talks leading up to it there were a lot of names that were tossed up, a lot of people that are unavailable.
“We would have loved a guy like Jermell Charlo, [the] former undisputed world champion, we would have loved anyone―[Errol] Spence, [Terence] Crawford, [but] them guys got their own thing going on. Keith Thurman is the guy that we got and we’re really stuck with that because this is the one that will really make noise for Tszyu in the [United] States.“
According to Rose himself, Thurman seemed to have expressly been chosen help Tm Tszyu build his profile in the United States which could potentially open him up to new avenues in gaining financial benefits such as through sponsorships, and increased interest in future fights held within the country.
When the obvious nature of Thurman’s activity was mentioned, Rose preferred to wave the question off, citing Thurman as a fighter capable of producing great performances after long layoffs, despite most fighters encountering difficulties such as ring rust when being out of the ring for too long.
“Keith Thurman showed that when he comes back after time off―he’s a very dangerous fighter,” Rose said.
“The fight against [Mario] Barrios, very impressive. Barrios is no slouch; the fact that Thurman was able to knock him off after a long layoff shows that you can’t underestimate him whatsoever.“
The February 2nd 2022 match between Keith Thurman and Mario Barrios (28-2, 18 KO’s) saw Thurman win by unanimous decision after being out for more than two years following his first-time career loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2019. However, Thurman has again not fought since facing Barrios nearly two years ago and he is currently not ranked by any of the sanctioning bodies which has reportedly prompted the WBO not to sanction the bout and therefore make the title unavailable to be defended by Tszyu.
Despite George Rose’s confidence in Thurman’s ability, this belief is apparently not shared by at least one sanctioning body in the WBO. Nevertheless, Tim Tszyu has proven to be serious when he claimed last year that he wanted all the “big names on his resume”. This is now glaringly apparent, with it now being made clear to the public that Tszyu has embodied the essence of being “prizefighter” by endeavoring to fight the biggest names rather than the best competition; regardless of whether they need to be pulled out of quasi-retirement or not.
As a result of the WBO refusing to sanction the bout between Thurman and Tszyu, reports have emerged of the fight taking place at a catchweight of 155 lbs, which would essentially make it fight at middleweight―though it would officially not be considered a middleweight match.
