{"id":560627,"date":"2026-03-25T22:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560627\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T22:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:01:09","slug":"keith-thurman-aims-to-revitalize-u-s-boxing-by-chasing-terence-crawford-after-sebastian-fundora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560627\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Thurman aims to revitalize U.S. boxing by chasing Terence Crawford after Sebastian Fundora"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few divisions are as meaningful to American boxing in 2026 as super welterweight.<\/p>\n

At a time in which the sport is perceived to be in relative disarray, with broadcast options limited for traditional promoters and some of boxing\u2019s biggest names embroiled in litigation, the breadth of the 154-pound division is a beacon of positive light amid the darkness.<\/p>\n

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One man who has stood on the outside and now returns to the ring for another swing at greatness is Keith Thurman.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Time\u201d Thurman was a near-mainstay competing under the HBO and Showtime banners throughout the 2010s as a unified welterweight champion. But since his prime years spent beating the likes of Robert Guerrero, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia, the sport has undergone drastic changes. And few are aware of that as well as Thurman.<\/p>\n

But, as the 37-year-old told Uncrowned ahead of his challenge of Sebastian Fundora for the WBC super welterweight championship in Las Vegas this Saturday, March 28, that knowledge is one of the core reasons for his return.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re in a little bit of limbo,\u201d Thurman said. \u201cThere’s been a transition ever since HBO and Showtime dropped out, as now you have new platforms like Paramount+, Amazon Prime, and things happening on Netflix \u2014 all the streaming services.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere’s a big shift. And this has got nothing to do with Donald Trump, but Keith Thurman is here to make American boxing great again, baby. Come on. Let’s make some of the greatest and most exciting fights that we can make happen, back in Las Vegas, and just represent American boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the talent,\u201d Thurman added. \u201cWe just have got to get busy with [more dates on] the platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Thurman mentioned, it is almost absurd to diagnosis the nation\u2019s problems within the sweet science as an issue of ability, considering Americans are dominating the pound-for-pound rankings, with Devin Haney (No. 8), David Benavidez (7), Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez (5) and Shakur Stevenson (3) all comfortably inside Uncrowned’s rankings of the top-10 fighters in the world<\/a>. Fundora, perhaps, isn\u2019t far behind either.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can plan for a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather,\u201d\u00a0Thurman said, acknowledging that most of U.S. boxing\u2019s biggest problems presently exist outside of the ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are problems with networking contracts, athletes and injuries, or whatever it is they\u2019re doing with miscellaneous activities. Look, we’re just a bunch of human beings trying to do our best out here. The world keeps going around. And somebody is going to promote boxing one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n

One somebody now promoting boxing is UFC boss Dana White, who, with help from WWE President Nick Khan, 360 Promotions founder Tom Loeffler, and Saudi fight financier Turki Alalshikh, have created Zuffa Boxing on Paramount+.<\/p>\n

\"LOS<\/p>\n

Keith Thurman (right) challenges Sebastian Fundora for the WBC super welterweight title on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Kevork Djansezian via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“I don’t see it, clearly, as the best of the best. I see it as potentially B+,\u201d Thurman said of Zuffa\u2019s roster and assumed trajectory. \u201cZuffa is young. Let’s see what they’re able to do, and maybe they’ll create their own superstar. That’s what their intentions are, with somebody taking off as the new Ryan Garcia or Conor McGregor.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt’s just going to take a little time. Then, they’ll have to get more notoriety and consistency. My buddy \u2018Hot Rod\u2019 Radivoke Kalajdzic got a win over there [against Oleksandr Gvozdyk]. It’s time to see him win a great fight where he steps up a level of competition. We’ve always believed in his skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Thurman keeps coming back to is how everyone in the business is looking for the spark that rekindles American boxing\u2019s boom periods from before. \u201cI hope I can be the catalyst,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThurman vs. Fundora will create great things for American boxing once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s fight is Thurman\u2019s chance to remind the sport how great he was \u2014 and potentially remains \u2014 while also providing a doorway for what he now covets most. He says he\u2019s determined to defeat Fundora, take the 28-year-old\u2019s world title to become a three-time champion himself, and defend that belt twice this year, at least.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a great fight,\u201d he said. \u201cNot only for me as an opportunity to win a world title for the first time since 2019, but for Fundora \u2014 there’s nobody on his r\u00e9sum\u00e9 who matches mine. And both of us can really make a name for ourselves and make a historical statement on Prime Video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thurman doesn\u2019t just want to make a statement in the ring against Fundora, but in subsequent fights. He\u2019s open to jumping across multiple divisions to take on the best available challengers from welterweight to middleweight.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is no greater challenge than Terence Crawford, despite \u201cBud\u2019s\u201d retirement following his extraordinary win over Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d Alvarez last year. Thurman, though, has name value, championship pedigree, and could present an intriguing temptation for Crawford in an otherwise barren middleweight division.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWinning right here, and reestablishing myself as champion, to get \u2018Bud\u2019 to come out of retirement \u2014 we can run it one time with the \u2018One Time\u2019 for the fans, for legacy,\u201d Thurman said. \u201cIt feels like a fight that should have happened, even though it never did. And maybe there’s a small window of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He finished: \u201cFor somebody who’s claiming retirement, you’d have to make it entice them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do so, Thurman must first extinguish the \u201cTowering Inferno\u201d that is Fundora.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few divisions are as meaningful to American boxing in 2026 as super welterweight. At a time in which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[32758,703,49,48,106400,11366,5155,82,9575,13036],"class_list":["post-560627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-american-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-danny-garcia","tag-keith-thurman","tag-sebastian-fundora","tag-sports","tag-super-welterweight","tag-terence-crawford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560627","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=560627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}