Keith Fitzgerald Thurman Jr vs. Mario Thomás Barrios & Léodegario Santa Cruz vs. Keenan Carbajal RBR

Easy win for Thurman but he needs to do alot better if he wants to face Spence or Crawford.

 

He wouldnt give Spence or Bud any trouble TBH

 

Honest assessment from Keith about his performance. I'd say you were closer to a C than -B

 

probably he can offer a competitive fight for 6 or 7 rounds.... to end up sleeping on the canvas a bit later.

 

Toward the end. I think he wanted to get some rnds and go for the stoppage in the late rnds. He seemed gassed and hesitant to throw combos and wouldn't go for the stoppage. It is a good comeback but he still has a lot of work.

 

Barrios hurt him to the body multiple times. Spence would stop him him from a body shot by 7 IMO.

 

Calling him Keith was the final straw

 

Decent comeback performance from keith.

 

Fair assessment. I certainly do think thurman looked vulnerable at times especially when barrios got to thurmans body. But barrios didnt click into 3rd gear all night. Maybe he was waery of thurmans power and so he never was pressing the action to really make a dent in thurman. Needs to work on cutting the ring off and be quicker with his feet overall. He can grow into this division

 

First fight at 147 so he was overly cautious.

 

I had Thurman winning this fight in a shutout, 12-0 rounds, 120-108 points. Barrios was competitive in most of the rounds, but Thurman consistently did the better work and landed sharper punches. I thought the judges might find the odd late round for Barrios, but I was surprised by the 117-111 and 118-110 x2 scoring. Even in the 8th, which had the eye-catching moment of Thurman removing his mouthpiece late in that round to catch a breath after taking a body shot, I thought Thurman clearly won that round. Immediately prior to the fight, bet365.com listed odds had Thurman a 4/9 favourite, Barrios a 9/5 underdog, and the draw surprisingly low odds at 14/1. There was uncertainty about how Thurman would look in his first fight in 2 1/2 years, but I thought tonight he looked relatively sharp, good foot movement and hand speed, creating angles and landing sharp punches, before fading a little in the last ~3 rounds, although in Round 12 he threw 70 punches, his most in any round of the fight. The fight tonight was officially a WBC title eliminator, but the WBC president confirmed mid-January that this was not a final title eliminator, with no guarantee the winner would next fight the unified WBC/IBF welterweight titlist Spence. It's just as well. To be honest I've never been particularly high on Thurman, I'm not sure what his best win is to date, and I had Porter beating him by decision when they fought. But it is good to see him back in the ring, especially with all his enthusiasm and charisma.