WBC Chairman Mauricio Suleiman said this week that Keith Thurman will be the "must-choose" opponent in the next game of WBC, WBA and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence. At the moment, Spence is in a somewhat awkward situation. After the negotiations with WBO boxing champion Terence Crawford broke down, he faces the problem of forced defending the title of 3 gold belts .
WBC's attitude means that if Spence wants to defend the title, he needs to compete with Thurman next. Of course, it would be another matter if Thurman could not challenge Spence due to injuries, overweight and other issues.
Now, in addition to WBC's Thurman, Spence is facing another more difficult game, against IBF legal challenger Jason Ennis. Compared to the aging, inactive Thurman, Ennis is more prominent and is even considered more troublesome than Crawford.
When asked whether Spence will face IBF legal challenger Ennis in the next game? Suleiman said: "No, next is the compulsory course for WBC. Thurman is the number one challenger. He will be Spence's must-have opponent. All of this will be seen at the WBC annual meeting."
Spence may need to choose between Thurman and Ennis. If the WBA asks him to accept the forced challenge of Imantas Stanios, things will become more troublesome. If the three major boxing organizations unanimously ask Spence to defend the title, he can only give up one or two of the gold belts.
If Spence does not want to fall into the quagmire of forced challenges of WBC, WBA, and IBF, it is very likely to rise to the 154-pound super welterweight division, but in this level, there are no more ideal opponents except Jimmel Charo, Sebastian Fondora, and Tim Tsyu.
In February this year, Thurman finally returned to the arena, but unfortunately he was in a state of silence after defeating Mario Barrios. Last year, Thurman called for a confrontation with Spence many times, but Spence made it clear that he would not give the other party this opportunity because Thurman rejected himself a few years ago when he was the world champion, so he naturally would not take care of Thurman now.
Objectively speaking, Thurman is a safer type compared to Ennis and Stanios. After all, he has declined a lot compared to his peak period. At the same time, he has a certain influence as a former boxing champion, but boxing fans would rather see Spence and Ennis confront each other because it is more suspense. Since Thurman defeated Daniel Garcia in 2017, the game density has seriously affected his popularity, which has been largely forgotten by boxing fans. After defeating Garcia, Thurman has never defeated any high-level boxer except losing to Manny Pacquiao , so it is difficult to arouse public interest.
