Thurman vs Pacquiao is a fantastic welterweight fight Saturday evening. Two of boxing’s best main eventing the Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Keith Thurman looks to unify the WBA titles by taking on the current titleholder Manny Pacquiao – The former 8 division world champion who has held 12 major titles. Thurman is a great boxer in his own right holding a 29-win flawless boxing record. Thurman has a distinct size advantage over PacMan along with big power behind the hands he throws. Not to discredit Pacquiao in this either as he can certainly win the fight. Pacquiao will need to press the action and put a considerable amount of pressure on Thurman along with getting the better of the exchanges when close enough. Thurman is best when countering and circling around his opponent.
I believe oddsmakers and the public are putting a lot into Thurman’s last fight which was his first fight back in two years after a layoff due to injuries. Despite still winning the fight by majority decision, Thurman looked like a fighter coming off a two year abscence – shaking off ring rust and even getting hurt in the seventh round. That was in January so I’m expecting a better, more prime Thurman now that he has got that fight over with and feeling himself again.
I’m going with Thurman here to get the job done most likely by a decision. I don’t think this fight gets stopped as both are very good with defense, IQ, and great chins still. Pacquiao is 40 now and his chin could go at any time esepcially against a bigger, hard-hitting boxer like Thurman.
Thurman is currently a (+145) underdog (at the time of this article being written) and it is a bit of a shocker to me – Thurman being younger, faster, stronger, and a bigger upside. Of course Pacquiao can win here because I’m not counting him out at all but, the value is all over Thurman to get his hand raised by a decision.
Bet: Keith Thurman wins outright (+145) and Keith Thurman wins by decision (+244)
