Keith Thurman

[2] Thurman was born in Clearwater, Florida, to an African-American father and a European-American mother of Polish and Hungarian descent.

[5][6] On November 9, 2007, an 18-year-old Thurman debuted as a light middleweight against Kensky Rodney at the A La Carte Event Pavilion in Tampa, Florida, in a scheduled 4 round fight.

[7] On August 8, 2008, Thurman defeated undefeated Jamaican Omar Bell (6-0, 4 KOs) via first-round knockout following an uppercut and left hand.

On November 26, 2012, Thurman brutally knocked 36 year old Carlos Quintana (29-3, 23 KOs) out in the fourth round to win the WBO NABO super welterweight title.

[12] On March 9, 2013, Thurman who had 19 wins in as many fights moved down to welterweight weight and fought on the undercard of Hopkins-Cloud at the Barclays Center in New York City.

After the bout, Thurman admitted it was a tough fight and he had prepared to go the distance, whilst also looking for a knockout, which he couldn't find.

[13][14] Despite being the mandatory to the WBO title, on July 27, 2013, Thurman challenged the Interim WBA welterweight champion Diego Gabriel Chaves (22-0, 18 KOs) at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

[15] Thurman won the Interim WBA title by knocking out Chaves in the tenth round of a very competitive fight.

They traded close rounds early until Chaves really slowed around the seventh, opening the door for Thurman's left hook.

Soto Karass was coming off a stunning knockout victory over former champion Andre Berto and was deemed to be a difficult opponent.

With many prospects and potential good match-ups at welterweight, Thurman claimed he wasn't afraid to lose and wanted to fight the best.

"[20][21][22] On March 25, 2014, it was confirmed that Thurman would fight veteran Mexican boxer and former IBF lightweight champion Julio Díaz (40-9-1, 29 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, on April 26.

[25] Prior to the fight, Thurman vowed to stop Bundu, who was the current European welterweight champion, having held the title since 2012.

Bundu's awkward style saw Thurman on the back foot for majority of the fight, which drew boos from the crowd.

[30] On January 14, 2015 Al Haymon announced that Thurman would fight 31 year old former world champion Robert Guerrero (32-2-1, 18 KOs) on March 7 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

[35][36] On May 21, 2015, PBC announced Thurman's next bout would take place at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, outside his hometown of Clearwater, on July 11, against veteran slugger Luis Collazo (36-6, 19 KOs) on ESPN.

[44] It was announced on February 17, Thurman would defend his title against Shawn Porter (26-1-1, 16 KOs) on March 12, 2016, at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.

[45] On February 23, Thurman's promoter said he had been forced to postpone his upcoming fight with Porter after being injured in a car accident.

[46] Porter announced that his rescheduled world title clash against Thurman will take place on June 25 at the Barclays Center.

[48][49] In an old-fashioned fight of the year candidate, Thurman successfully defended his title, before a crowd of 12,718, when all three judges scored an identical 115–113 in his favor.

Thurman rocked Porter badly on multiple occasions in the fight, he was also hurt himself by a body shot in the eighth round.

This was the first main event televised by CBS in prime time since February 15, 1978, when Muhammad Ali lost a 15-round split decision and the heavyweight title to Leon Spinks in a massive upset.

[59][60] The conference got extremely heated, leading to Angel García standing up and shouting racial slurs towards Thurman.

[61] Thurman won the fight match via split decision with the scorecards 116–112, 113-115 & 115–113, making him a unified welterweight world champion.

[69] On October 3, Lamont Peterson wrote to the WBA officially vacating his 'Regular' title, which meant Thurman was now their only belt-holder at welterweight.

He stated that he would not be taking the rematch with Porter nor would he be fighting IBF titleholder Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) on his return bout.

[72] According to sources in early January 2018, former welterweight titlist Jessie Vargas (28-2, 10 KOs) was being lined up to challenge Thurman on his return.

[74][75] On March 30, it was reported that Thurman suffered a deep bruise to his left hand and has been forced to pull out of his next fight, scheduled for May 19.

"[77][78] In November 2018, it was announced that Thurman would fight Josesito López on January 26, 2019, at Barclays Center, to defend his WBA welterweight title.

Similar to Thurman, Barrios was also coming off the first defeat of his professional career, when he had been stopped by Gervonta Davis in June 2021.