I was just about to say. Reed seems to have been saying that the bar is not particularly high for a comebacking Thurman, vis a vis Lomachenko and others looking not-so-hot on their own return. But............there's a difference between an off-the-floor stoppage of a guy like Linares in 8 rounds............and a 12 round MD vs Lopez.
Hardly surprising. He also dealt with Spzilka easier. Wilder has height, reach, and massive power, and a punchers mentality. He couldn't box chocolates, however.
Now Spence wont even get credit for stopping Thurman. And when Thurman does lose, he'll say "I wasnt my best anymore." It shoulda happened in 2015.
Spence needs to forget about this shit. Immortality awaits if Spence can get a proper fair fight at 160 and become the 4th guy to beat Canelo.
If you give Canelo EVERY benefit of the doubt, you can maybe give him a draw. I'd really like to see someone make an argument for Canelo winning 7 rounds against Lara, cause it didnt happen. I thought Lara won clear as day.
I've heard Mexican fans say "No way Lara beat Canelo! He ran too much!" And I've heard those same fans say "Oscar was robbed against Tito! He boxed beautifully!"
Yeah I was rooting for Lara, but I dont think he won that fight. At the very least, it was a close fight that could have gone either way. Far from a robbery
The version that showed up last night wouldnt. If he ever manage to get his game back, I would pick him, but at this point, it is far from a given since he seems to have lost his motivation.
I think Thurman is a rudimentary fighter who lacks variety and seems easy to hurt. I don't buy this shit about his being an athletic fighter. He boxes by numbers. He doesn't panic into getting hit, or panic when he gets hit, but he's been hurt twice now against guys that really weren't all that. Collazzo in particular.
His athleticism is probably his best attribute. He moves a lot, has decent hand speed, yet he’s still quite hittable. Always has been even before the lay-off. His ring IQ is overrated by today’s younger fans. I’ve seen people on YouTube compare him to Leonard...
People think he has good ring IQ? I don't think he's an intelligent fighter at all. He has athleticism and heart, but he alost always fight the same way and is not really clever in there. For me, he's a better (mentally stronger and less dumb) version of Jean Pascal
Thurman has average ring IQ, at best. He's not AS dumb as Khan and Broner, but they set the bar extremely low.
I actually give Thurman credit for fighting hurt the way he did. He was fairly close to being stopped there for a minute. Interesting thing is, he hit Lopez with a ton of shots. A lot of fighters would've gone into a shell in response to some of those heavy counters. But to Lopez's credit, he did not. But a lot of fighters , like Garcia, will go into a shell, and as a result, it is a winning recipe for Thurman against fighters less determined/fearless than Lopez.
Khan is the connoisseurs box-bot. His one redeeming feature is that he's got enormous heart and slugs it out with great intensity..............which masks his simultaneous fistic incoherency. His IQ couldn't be lower, but he does go down swinging.
Thurman reminds me of Oscar when he was regressing/being found out in the run up to the Tito fight, and including the Tito fight. Remember Oscars attempt to finish the Quartey fight? Swinging and swiping.........