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Keith Thurman: PBC's 'big league' setting means more pressure

LAS VEGAS – Robert Guerrero and Keith Thurman are here on this grand stage, in boxing's first primetime show on NBC since a heavyweight championship bout in Reno went 15 rounds 30 years ago, largely because of what they've accomplished.

Guerrero has been a professional boxer for nearly half of his life, and briefly hit the summit in 2013 when he faced the pound-for-pound king, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Robert Guerrero (R) outlasted Yosihiro Kamegai last June. (Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
Robert Guerrero (R) outlasted Yosihiro Kamegai last June. (Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)

Thurman has won 24 bouts without a loss, with 21 of those ending in a stoppage, and he holds the WBA interim welterweight title.

But when the two stand across from each other in the ring Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden in the main event of the debut Premier Boxing Champions card, it will almost be like they're starting over.

The power of network television has the ability to make them overnight sensations after years of struggle.

"We're in the big leagues now," Thurman said. "This puts us on a par with all the other major sports. But when you're in the big leagues, they expect you to perform."

There will be an elaborate set-up, extraordinary plans for the broadcast and an all-star announcing team headed by the great Marv Albert on play-by-play and Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard as the color analyst. Al Michaels, the voice of Sunday Night Football on NBC, will serve as the host.

That, though, is all window dressing to what is really important.

"People want to see a fight, man," Thurman said. "They want to see two elite athletes at the top of the mountain get in there and go at it. And that's what we're going to do."

The style matchup is decidedly viewer friendly. Guerrero turned pro only a few weeks after his 18th birthday and was mostly a slick boxer. He had good lateral movement, a sharp jab and an uncanny knack for dodging punches.

But as he developed into a top-tier talent, he began to sour on what he saw going on around him. There were a lot of fighters who commanded big purses and plenty of headlines who simply wanted the easy fights.

They weren't looking to match themselves against the best and get down and dirty in a battle of wills like he so desperately wanted to do.

And so Guerrero began to move weight classes in order to seek out the best fights.

He's settled at welterweight and has suddenly become a guy who loves to trade. Guerrero won't shy away from a scrap, even if it might be wise for him to rely on his ability to box.

Julio Diaz, right, takes a punch from Keith Thurman during a fight last April. (AP)
Julio Diaz, right, takes a punch from Keith Thurman during a fight last April. (AP)

And though Thurman has knocked out just about everyone he's faced, he's haunted in a way by the result of his last fight, a 12-round decision in December over Leonard Bundu. Thurman knocked Bundu down in the first round but was unable to finish him.

It left Guerrero decidedly unimpressed.

"When you have somebody down, you don't play with him," Guerrero said. "You take him out."

It's what Thurman fully expected to do. And it's what many who had began to clamor for him to get a shot at Mayweather expected.

But Thurman opted not to press for the knockout because he said he wanted to get in some rounds. He hadn't fought in eight months and hoped to get four or five rounds of work.

He won the fight going away, though he couldn't finish Bundu. Trainer Dan Birmingham was thrilled by his boxing exhibition, but critics inundated Thurman with the same question: What happened?

"What happened was that I was so happy with that first-round knockdown that I said to myself, 'You know what, we trained long and hard, we had a layoff, so let's get a few more rounds out of this fight,' " Thurman said. "I said, 'If he jumped into a knockdown that easily in the first round, I can do it in the next few rounds again.' I figured I was going to stop him in the fourth or fifth. But when the fifth round came around, I realized that he didn't want to take that chance that put him on the floor.

"He was real tentative and patient, you know? I believe the knockdown put him in that state of mind and I had to make a conscious decision at the end of the fifth round: 'Are you going to force the knockout and walk right through him, stay in the pocket and eat punches and hope to land a big punch, or are you going to continue to pitch the shutout you're pitching?' It was the first fight I switched southpaw and I knocked him down from the southpaw position. I got an opportunity to work on something brand new and I took it."

The question is, at what cost?

Guerrero isn't ordinarily a trash talker, but he had difficulty holding back. He said he questioned Thurman's chin and said much of his impressive knockout record was built by defeating lesser lights.

"He's been in with some guys who were tailor-made for his style," Guerrero said. "That's what you do with those kind of guys – you knock them out."

In a sense, Guerrero could be tailor-made for the hard-hitting Thurman. Guerrero loves to come forward and attack, and Thurman has pop in both hands.

Guerrero beamed when that scenario was mentioned.

"They could say I'm tailor-made for him, but I'm faster than he is and more experienced," Guerrero said. "I'm not going to be looking for a soft spot. I'm coming to fight."