Spence: I Can Knock Out Thurman

Newly crowned IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence’s main goal is to unify the division, and that means taking on WBC and WBA champion Keith Thurman. After stopping Kell Brook to win the title, Spence believes he can knock out Thurman if the two do share the ring.

Spence wants to unify the division, and views Thurman as the likely candidate – since the two of them share the same manager in Al Haymon and both fight under the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella. Thurman recently underwent elbow surgery and won’t be able to fight until the end of the year.

Last weekend, Spence captured the IBF belt when he stopped once-beaten Kell Brook before a hostile crowd of 27,000 fans at Bramall Lane in Sheffield.

Spence explained that Thurman has been dropped and knocked out in the amateurs – which makes Spence confident of being able to accomplish the same in the pro ring. Thurman has already been down in the pros. He was dropped and badly hurt in the first round of his 2010 bout with Quandray Robertson. Thurman recovered and came back to stop Robertson in the third.

"I can knock him out. If I hit him [with the right shots]….. with Keith Thurman, he’s been knocked out in the amateurs before. I’ve never been knocked out or dropped in the amateurs. He’s been dropped and knocked out in the amateurs. Everybody knows that. He can be knocked out, it’s been proven," Spence told Sway in The Morning.

One the flaws that Spence noticed about Thurman, is the unified champion’s stamina. He feels Thurman faded in the second half of his fights with Danny Garcia and Robert Guerrero.

"With Garcia I saw he faded, just like he did with Robert Guerrero," Spence said. "He faded in the later rounds and started moving around the ring. In the first half he was doing great. I didn’t think he would come out at Danny Garcia the way he did in the first few rounds, but he did. In the later rounds I guess he get tired and started running around the ring. He really didn’t fight the last four or five rounds. Danny should have picked up the pace, but he didn’t."