Age.

Injuries.

Inactivity.

Any of the three wreak havoc on a boxing career. All of the above is a veritable disaster.

It wasn’t that long ago that Keith Thurman had emerged as arguably the most watched fighter in US boxing. That’s not hyperbole. Positioned as a centerpiece of the initial Premier Boxing Champions launch, Thurman headlined cards on NBC and CBS that all topped three million viewers against Robert Guerrero, Shawn Porter, and Danny Garcia with the fight against Garcia peaking at over 5 million viewers according to Nielsen estimates. 

It played out over a four-fight stretch from 2015 that also included a less viewed fight on ESPN against Luis Collazo (that still delivered over a million viewers) and saw Thurman unify the WBA and WBC welterweight belts. 

It didn’t make Thurman necessarily the most popular fighter in boxing at the time or the richest, but he played an important role as a reliable, high quality star outside the pay-per-view lane. Made available to the widest audiences possible, Thurman kept the audiences coming back and won under the spotlight.

Then it fell apart. Thurman missed all of 2018 and lost his WBC belt outside the ring. Thurman managed to fight twice in 2019, moving to pay-per-view with a WBA title loss to the great Manny Pacquiao. He hasn’t fought since.

That changes this Saturday night. Thurman (29-1, 22 KO), now 33, returns on Fox pay-per-view (9 PM EST) to face another man coming off a loss in what could be an intriguing clash. 26-year old Mario Barrios is moving up from Jr. welterweight to welterweight in his first start since a stoppage loss to Gervonta Davis last June.

The 2017 version of Thurman would be a prohibitive favorite in this encounter.

We don’t know what the 2022 version of Thurman looks like. Even if Thurman is good enough to win this weekend, that’s a long way from where he’s likely to want to land. Can Keith Thurman, once a unified titlist, find his place in the title scene again?    

At the top of the division, things don’t look much different than they did the last time Thurman stepped in the ring. In 2019, Errol Spence-Terence Crawford looked like the fight to determine the best in class but it had not happened yet.

In 2022, it’s still the case.

Some other things have changed. Pacquiao is retired. So is Porter, his career ended by Crawford. Garcia isn’t, but the former lineal Jr. welterweight champion hasn’t been in the ring since a 2020 loss to Spence. Yordenis Ugas has emerged as the WBA titlist and is headed to a unification showdown with Spence (WBC/IBF) in April. Jarron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz have emerged as serious, dangerous contenders, part of a youth movement that will only accelerate over the next year.

Under the PBC banner, old wars of words with Spence could certainly mean opportunity if Spence defeats Ugas. Thurman would be a name opponent for the Cuban if he surprises the world again as he did in ending the career of Pacquiao. Crawford, no longer under the umbrella of Top Rank and ESPN, has no dance partners yet for the year and has the WBO belt to defend.

A Thurman win this weekend, and his past notoriety, would make him an attractive opponent for any of them. How Thurman performs against Barrios might tell us how realistic his chances of winning would be. 

From arguably the most viewed, and after the Garcia unification arguably best positioned, welterweight in the world to here is the stark reality of sports. No one stays up forever. Thurman will have hard mountains to climb to get up as high again as he once was. He won’t get anywhere if he can’t get past Barrios first.           

Cliff’s Notes…

The story of the Klitschko brothers is so much more than boxing. There have been documentaries about them already but the documentaries twenty years from now will be fascinating…Claressa Shields-Ema Kozin this weekend is a big step to a showdown with Savannah Marshall as women’s boxing’s other super fight gets closer…Props to Shakur Stevenson for hoping not to see his clash with Oscar Valdez air in overlap with the other women’s superfight, Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano…Jesse Rodriguez-Carlos Cuadras is the most interesting fight of the week in the ring. Will the veteran hold or will a star be born? The end of an era could arrive over the next month at Jr. bantamweight.   

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.