Brock Jarvis (22-1, 20 KOs) predicts a “bad night” for Keith Thurman (28-1, 22 KOs) in their headliner on March 12th at Hordern Pavilion, in Sydney, Australia. Thurman, 36, has chosen Jarvis, 27, as his warm-up opponent to prepare him for a fight against Tim Tszyu later this year. We’ll find out if Thurman made a mistake of using a guy with power as his first fight in three years.
The last time Thurman came off a three-year layoff, he looked great, beating former WBA light welterweight champion Mario Barrios by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision on February 5, 2022, but a lot changes when a fighter is as old as ‘One Time.’ This is only the second fight for Thurman in six years, and it’s impossible to expect him to be anywhere near his top form from 2016 to 2-17.
“On March 12th, be the. It’s going to be a bad night to be Keith Thurman,” said Brock Jarvis during today’s press conference for his fight against Keith Thurman in Sydney, Australia.
Body Target
If Jarvis’ training team has taken notes from watching Thurman’s past fights, they’ll have him target his body in this fight to take advantage of his weakness in that area.
“The best version of Keith we saw was in his fight with me [in 2016] and Danny [Garcia in 2017]. The version of Keith we saw against Manny [Pacquiao in 2019]. We saw him get dropped in the first round. I really don’t think that was the best version of Keith,” said Shawn Porter to the media today, talking about the decline Thurman has gone through in the last six years.
The fight he had with Mario [Barrios]. Points-wise it was one-sided, but Mario made him work every round. He had the infamous body shot that Keith seems to get hit with in every fight. So the key is, you got to go to the body.
“So, I think the best version of Keith was in 2016 and 2017. Can he do that again? I don’t know. He was training at a high level back then. Now, he kind of coasts himself through training to keep himself healthy. I can’t imagine he’s an A+ fighter like he used to be. I can imagine him being a B+ fighter now. I think a B+ or B- fighter beats Jarvis. Can that beat Tszyu? I don’t know,” said Porter.
