NEW YORK — Keith Thurman was a few minutes removed from successfully defending his WBA welterweight title, although it was a harder return fight than he might have imagined — the bruises on his face and swelling under both eyes serving as representations that fighting Josesito Lopez was anything but a warmup fight.
Coming off a 22-month absence from the sport, "One Time" wanted to end Saturday night's fight inside six rounds. Instead, he had to go the distance in a hard-fought victory, which he won by majority decision (although the one judge who scored it a draw was definitely being overly generous toward Lopez).
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Taking the podium in a bright yellow Champion hoodie for his postfight press conference at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Thurman made a quick opening statement to the media and then fielded a few questions before making a candid admission.
"There was a little insecurity of taking risks," Thurman said as he assessed his performance.
Later in the press conference, he added: "That's what I'm going to take away from [Saturday night], is that Keith Thurman needs to have the confidence to take a little bit more risk in the battle, on the battlefield."
Thurman explained that opportunities to piece together a jab-hook combination were there for him several times throughout the fight, but that "I just wasn't giving it the oomph that I really could've."
Thurman did score a second-round knockdown of Lopez via a slick, step-back left hook, but not taking more risks possibly gave "Riverside Rocky" the opening to deliver a hellacious seventh round in which he had the champion backpedaling, reeling, hurt and in some serious trouble.
Still, Thurman rebounded quite well in the eighth round, getting the bounce back in his step and putting together stinging combinations over the remainder of the fight to remain undefeated (29-0, 22 KOs).
"I believe, and I've always believed, that I will find a way to victory," Thurman said.
As Thurman continued speaking to the press, he said that he has learned a great deal from some of his boxing peers, such as Jeff Lacy, "Winky" Wright, Chad Dawson, Andre Berto and none other than Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"I was at all of [Mayweather's] fights of his six-fight contract with Showtime, and what I learned from just being a spectator is if you want to be champion of the world, you need to win seven rounds — seven out of 12," Thurman said.
He added seconds later: "I never said it out loud to all of you, but I will [Saturday night] — Floyd Mayweather is the best-ever seven-round fighter and with hard work, determination, grit and a will to win, he never — including when he let Marcos Maidana fight Marcos Maidana's fight — he never let a human being get more than five rounds in a 12-round fight."
From watching Floyd Mayweather, Keith Thurman learned that you need to win seven rounds to be a winner in boxing. pic.twitter.com/YUJbA9w9QN
— Sporting News Fights (@sn_fights) January 27, 2019
Thurman plans on doing that, too — win more rounds to win more fights to remain undefeated and be recognized as one of the all-time greats — but if you combine his self-assessment after beating Lopez and the valuable lesson Mayweather taught him, perhaps "One Time" needs to take more calculated risks to win those seven rounds per fight en route to more decision wins. Perhaps taking more calculated risks will lead to Thurman ending fights via stoppage, too. He does have deceptive power at 147 pounds.
The 30-year-old Clearwater, Fla., native might get the chance to take more calculated risks later this year. Thurman spoke during the lead-up to Saturday's fight about wanting to fight two bouts in 2019 — his "get-back year." He also said that he would love for one of those fights to be against Manny Pacquiao or the winner of the Shawn Porter-Yordenis Ugas bout on March 9. Thurman vacated the WBC title because of injuries last spring, paving the way for Porter to score a unanimous decision over Danny Garcia to grab the gold in September.
When Sporting News asked Thurman during the press conference if he'd rather have the fight against "Pac Man" or a shot at regaining his strap, which could spell a rematch against Porter, "One Time" first answered diplomatically.
"They're both on my radar. At the end of the day, I’d probably take either one of those [fights]," he said.
As he thought about it a few seconds longer, Thurman fine-tuned that response — sort of like he did an hour before as he made in-ring adjustments with precision.
"Fighting a legend, I just feel like the clock is ticking," Thurman said of the 40-year-old Pacquiao's time left in the sweet science. "Mayweather is out of the game and if I have such an opportunity, it might prioritize fighting some of the younger fighters in the sport of boxing today."
After his win over Josesito Lopez, SN asked Keith Thurman who he’d rather face next, Manny Pacquiao or the winner of Shawn Porter vs. Yordenis Ugas.
— Sporting News Fights (@sn_fights) January 27, 2019
This was his answer. pic.twitter.com/mNxbQfdYLB
Whether in a unifying fight against Pacquiao or the winner of Porter-Ugas, or in possible 2020 bouts with fellow welterweight champs Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford, Thurman will get to take calculated risks. After all, he might have to in order to stay undefeated and prove himself as the top welterweight in the game.
