Boxing

Keith Thurman vs Tim Tszyu Is Perfect Crossroads Fight

Keith Thurman and Tim Tszyu are on a collision course for a big fight this summer.

Nathaniel Marrero

Tim Tszyu
Tim Tszyu / IMAGO/AAP

Few fights have higher stakes than one in which we figure out who could still have title aspirations while the other's best days are likely behind them.

We've arrived at that point with Tim Tszyu vs. Keith Thurman.

Less than a month after Thurman got a third-round stoppage of Brock Jarvis, Tszyu did his part as well, stopping Joey Spencer in the fourth round on Saturday in Newcastle, Australia. Now, the table appears to be set for Tsyzu and Thurman to clash this summer, and both fighters already appear to be more than up to the task.

"Congratulations Tim Tszyu," Thurman said. "I see you got through with that appetizer [and] I got through with mine...I don't know about you boy, but I'm still hungry. Send the contract. I'll sign it by tonight. I'll come to Australia and give you a good fight."

Tsyzu (25-2, 18 KOs) and Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs) were scheduled to face off on March 30, 2024, but a bicep injury forced the former unified welterweight champion to withdraw from the bout. Tszyu, who was then the WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion, instead faced Sebastian Fundora and the fight turned into something out of a horror film with how bloody the bout became due to an inadvertent elbow from Fundora to the top of Tszyu's head.

Fundora went on to win by split decision, though, one could make a strong case that Tsyzu was in the driver's seat to win and potentially stop Fundora with how well he started the bout. Tszyu immediately went back into the lion's den to try and reclaim a belt when he faced Bakhram Murtazaliev for his IBF title, and anything that could have gone wrong for the former unified junior middleweight champion did go wrong on Oct. 19.

Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) cemented himself as one of the boogeymen of the junior middleweight division, dropping Tszyu four times en route to a third-round stoppage and sending him back to the drawing board.

Thurman and Tszyu both answered some questions in their return, but many remain given the level of opposition and the little resistance they faced in their wins. Jarvis had only fought above 140 pounds in his two previous bouts and Thurman's power advantage was immediately evident once he settled in and began to shake off the rust of being out of the ring for just over three years.

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Tszyu was much more reserved to begin the bout against Spencer and picked up the volume as the fight progressed. Once he began to ratchet up the pressure and connect with big shots, it wasn't much longer before Spencer's corner decided to throw in the towel.

The narrative has shifted dramatically compared to when Thurman and Tszyu were first scheduled to meet. Instead of the bout feeling like Thurman was being brought in to elevate Tszyu, it now feels like a fight that can go either way.

Is Thurman still the same guy who was once the unified welterweight champion of the world and can he hang in a loaded junior middleweight division? Was Tszyu's more reserved approach against Spencer a sign that he's turned over a new leaf and he's still one of the best in the world at 154 pounds?

Tszyu vs. Thurman would go a long way toward answering those questions and potentially adding another name to the upper echelon in one of boxing's best divisions.

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Nathaniel Marrero
NATHANIEL MARRERO

Nathaniel Marrero is a writer for the Boxing, Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Ravens On SI sites. He's also written for the Orlando Sentinel and MLB.com, and was a part of UCF's sports show, Hitting The Field. He attended UCF and graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 2023. Twitter/X: Nate_Marrero