Former WBA welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman 30-1 (22) delivered a vintage performance to widely outpoint former WBA ‘regular’ junior welterweight titleholder Mario ‘El Azteca’ Barrios 26-2 (17) at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
Thurman, 33, from Clearwater, Florida had been inactive since his split decision loss to Filipino Manny Pacquiao 62-8-2 (39) in July 2019 but he showed no signs of ruing rust as he took control of the fight in the early going and never let up.
The 26-year-old Barrios from San Antonio, Texas struggled to mount any meaningful offence as Thurman dictated the pace and the exchanges.
At the conclusion of 12 rounds judges Tim Cheatham and Dave Moretti both had Thurman up 118-110, while judge Steve Weisfeld saw it 117-111.
Now Thurman wants a shot at one of the world champions at welterweight. Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 38-0 (29) owns the WBO strap while Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 27-0 (21) is the WBC and IBF boss. Yordenis Ugas 27-4 (12) holds the WBA belt.
“This was a comeback fight after two and a half years away,” said Thurman. “I wish I had my best performance, but I did the best I could under the circumstances.
“I grade this performance a C+ or B- for myself… we rocked him. We weren’t able to put him down and out, but we had a great performance and a great fight.
“I want the belts. I want the champions. I want to be back on top, so whoever is willing to send Keith Thurman the contract, let’s go!”
According to CompuBox, Thurman outlanded Barrios in every round. He landed 181 punches and threw a fight high 70 punches in the last round. Most impressively, Thurman landed 47.5% of his power shots.
“I knew I was sharp from the sparring,” Thurman said. “And he was very poised. I showed him some movement. I saw some fundamental mistakes. You know, he was crossing his feet over. I was like, okay, I can treat this boy like some of my sparring partners and I can just school him a little bit, get back on that jab more and land the better power shots, like I did all night.”
Barrios, who was moving up in weight, was disappointed by his performance and admitted he failed to make the proper adjustments during the bout.
“We knew going into this fight he was gonna be on his bike, especially if I started to hurt him, which I believe I did several times,” Barrios said.
“It was an adjustment, you know, I should’ve made better. I’m gonna go back in the gym and work on all this… Overall, I felt stronger. There was nothing in there, you know, that really hurt me, to where I touched the canvas or couldn’t continue.”
