WBA “regular” welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (25-0, 21 KOs) will defend his title vs former two-time world champion Luis Collazo (36-6, 19 KOs). The main event bout will take place July 11th at the USF Sundome in Tampa, Florida. ESPN will air the fight as part of Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions Series (PBC). This will be Thurman’s first fight in his home state of Florida in nearly 5 years and as a world champion.
Thurman is coming off his career best win this past March decisioning former world champion Roberto Guerrero. It was a hard fought bout by both men as anticipated. Thurman dominated the early action but had to overcome a hematoma on the left side of his forehead. He landed some very hard flush shots to Guerrero. Thurman dropped Guerrero in round 9 but the resilient Guerrero not only got up but came back to bully Thurman against the ropes in the later rounds. Thurman had no problems withstanding Guerrero’s late push and went on to decision him unanimously to retain his world title.
There were rumors that Thurman would return in June but it was speculated that he needed more time to recover from the hematoma he suffered in his fight with Guerrero. There were hopes that Thurman would land a major fight but the timing just didn’t work out with scheduling probably more than anything else. The selection of Collazo as the next opponent for Thurman was met with a lot of criticism. This could be because Collazo was completely dominated over 12 completed rounds by Amir Khan in his last fight. Each fight is different and Thurman cannot be too overconfident. His objective seems to land a showdown with unbeaten pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr so defeating Collazo is a must for him to stay in the running
