{"id":544399,"date":"2026-03-18T11:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544399\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:43:09","slug":"keith-thurman-says-belts-dont-matter-before-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544399\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Thurman Says Belts Don\u2019t Matter Before Title Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add EBoxing News 24as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqLAgKIiZDQklTRmdnTWFoSUtFR0p2ZUdsdVoyNWxkM015TkM1amIyMG9BQVAB?ceid=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow Boxing News 24 on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Thurman said titles have never driven him, pointing instead to the fights themselves as the real goal. He presented it as a long-held view rather than something new.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never really cared about the belts. I cared about the fight,\u201d Thurman said to Cigar Talk.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s difficult to take that at face value, given the position he\u2019s in now. The 37-year-old is set to face WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora on March 28. Last year, Thurman was scheduled to fight Tim Tszyu for the WBO 154-pound belt before pulling out with a biceps injury. The pattern is clear. When opportunities come, they tend to involve titles.<\/p>\n<p>Thurman has gone after the money fights when they were available. He had that with Manny Pacquiao in 2019 and Danny Garcia in 2017. After those nights, he stepped away for long stretches. That history has led some to question how committed he is to staying active at the top level and whether the priority has been financial.<\/p>\n<p>He can say the belts were never the goal, but his path has often gone through them. Most of his wins have come against regular contenders, yet the biggest moments in his career have still been tied to title fights.<\/p>\n<p>If Thurman beats Fundora, he won\u2019t treat the belt as an afterthought. He\u2019ll have options. Vergil Ortiz Jr., Conor Benn, and Jaron Ennis are all there. A returning Errol Spence would also be in play. In that position, the belt becomes useful, whether he says it matters or not.<\/p>\n<p>He may downplay titles now, but if he wins one, he\u2019s not walking away from it.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Woods has been a senior writer at Boxing News 24 since 2013, covering the sport from every angle. With years of ringside reporting, he delivers fight news, results, and analysis that cut through the noise. Ken\u2019s work consistently spotlights champions, contenders, and rising prospects, giving fans a sharp, knowledgeable view of the global boxing scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thurman said titles have never driven him, pointing instead to the fights themselves as the real goal. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-544399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}