Floyd Mayweather Jr. did something this past Saturday against Marcos Maidana that boxing fans and observers haven't seen him do in many years-struggle. Maidana used bully tactics to roughhouse Mayweather against the ropes and unleashed a bevy of punches from all angles at all times on the pound-for-pound king.
While Floyd still beat Maidana, and avoided the vast majority of his overhand rights while connecting on well over half the power shots he threw, the 37-year-old champ looked ever-so-slightly diminished from the form he showed against Canelo Alvarez in September 2013.
Now, while a rematch with Maidana seems fairly obvious, his next opponent is far from settled. Throughout his illustrious career Mayweather has only fought one man twice, Jose Luis Castillo in 2002. Maidana's power proved to be an exciting factor in this fight, and despite Amir Khan's cries that his quick-handed is best suited to defeat Floyd, power wins out for fans.
Enter 25-year-old Keith "One-Time" Thurman. He is a knockout artist in every sense of the word at 23-0-0 with 21 knockouts, is advised by Al Haymon (as is Mayweather), fights on Showtime and has several impressive wins on his resume.
Furthermore, he is capable of fighting in a similar fashion to the style Maidana employed, with even greater power. On top of that, agreeing to face Thurman would fly in the face of Mayweather's legion of critics that claim he ducks the toughest opponents. Oh yeah, technically he's the mandatory challenger for Mayweather's WBA title.
"I'm a young, up-and-coming, rising star," Thurman said. "I have yet to fight any world champion. A lot of them claim they have many reasons not to fight me. And it would be nice to give Floyd a reason to fight me. So we'll see what happens."
Thurman also knows that everyone in the sweet science wants a shot at the throne. "Floyd calls the shots," Thurman said. "Floyd picked this fight here. The one way I see Floyd fighting me (is via the mandatory)."
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