What a difference two years makes. Back in 2017, Thurman was on the fringe of the pound-for-pound conversation after unifying welterweight titles against Danny Garcia, while Pacquiao appeared on his way out of the sport after a shock defeat to the unheralded Jeff Horn. Since then Thurman was sidelined 22 months, first by right elbow surgery and then an injured left hand, and was hurt badly by a B-level opponent in a January comeback fight, while Pacquiao has rolled back the years in back-to-back victories over Lucas Matthysse and Adrien Broner.
Consequently, Pacquiao enters tonight’s fight as a slight betting favorite, though we’ve just heard the MGM has taken a six-figure wager on Thurman in the last few hours.
“It’s been a build up and a progression my whole career toward this moment on Saturday night,” Thurman said this week. “This really is the outcome of an individual living out their dream.”
Tale of the tape
Hello and welcome to the MGM Grand for tonight’s WBA welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman. It’s a main event offering an intriguing matchup between the 40-year-old Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs), an eight-division champion in the winter of an all-time great career, and the 30-year-old Thurman (29-0, 22 KOs), one of the sport’s young lions with an opportunity to secure the signature win of his career. Both enter the fight with versions of the WBA’s welterweight title which makes it a unification fight in its own special way.
The co-main event, a 12-round welterweight scrap between Omar Figueroa Jr vs Yordenis Ugas, is about to start. Which means Pacquiao and Thurman should make their ringwalks in about 45 minutes.