By: Hans Themistode
Errol Spence Jr. has made it no secret that he craves facing all of the top names in the welterweight division. With that said, the unified titlist continues to show no interest in a showdown against former WBC/WBA 147 pound belt holder, Keith Thurman.
Several years ago, when Spence Jr. was a beltless prospect attempting to make his way up the welterweight rankings, he called for a matchup against Thurman on numerous occasions. Believing there were bigger fish to fry in Floyd Mayweather, Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter – a matchup against an unproven knockout artist wasn’t an appealing option to Thurman.
Since then, Spence Jr. vowed to never face Thurman in the ring, no matter the circumstances. In the mind of the former unified titlist, his reluctance to face Spence Jr. was always business, never personal. Now, with Thurman continuing to reiterate that he would love a shot at the powerful southpaw and with Spence Jr. continuing to abruptly turn him down, Thurman simply has one question that he would like his long-time rival to answer.
“Why is Errol so mad?” Asked Thurman during an interview with FightHype.com. “Why is he guzzling down hatorade? Straight chugging it. Beef is beef, I’m not vegan, I get the beef. I’m really trying to figure out what I did to this boy.”
While Thurman paused for a moment to think to himself, his eyebrows raised seconds later as though he was hit with a revelation as to why Spence Jr. has such a high level of disdain for him.
“No matter what this boy has done in his career, he can’t get past, what do you think about Thurman? No matter what statement he makes, the next question is, so what do you think about Thurman?”
Currently, the 31-year-old Spence Jr. is in the midst of training camp as he prepares to take on Manny Pacquiao. The two will face off on August 21st, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. If Spence Jr. picks up the win against the future first-ballot Hall of Famer, it will be viewed as a huge feather in his cap. Still, while a victory over Pacquiao would be arguably the biggest of his career, Thurman believes that his shadow would still loom large over the Dallas native.
“He can beat Pacquiao and you know what’s the next conversation that he’s gonna have to hear? Are you going to fight Thurman?”