The news of the day from the 60th annual WBC Convention in Acapulco, Mexico, was the WBC ordered Errol Spence Jr. to face Keith Thurman, as the WBC’s #1 contender. A move approved by all the board of governors at the WBC convention.
This comes on the heels of Errol Spence Jr. being unable to fight Terence Crawford, as that fight fell apart, and now Crawford is fighting David Avanesyan, on upstart streaming platform BLK Prime.
Spence, who is rumored to return in the first quarter of 2023, will seemingly have to face Eimantas Stanionis, who is the WBA mandatory opponent, and Stanionis made it clear that his side wants the WBA to enforce the mandatory. If Spence were to fight Keith Thurman that could create a scenario in which Spence has to vacate the WBA “super” welterweight title.
Jaron “Boots” Ennis is also petitioning the IBF to enforce their mandatory as well, as quite simply put the welterweight division is too inactive, and those deserving of world title fights are now demanding that the sanctioning bodies enforce their mandatories rather than sit by.
Thurman has fought three times since January 2019. Once in a rather lackadaisical performance against contender Josesito Lopez, a loss to Manny Pacquiao, and a return to form in 2022 in a winning effort against Mario Barrios. Thurman sat out all of 2022 waiting on Spence vs. Crawford.
If this fight were to happen, a speculated date of January or February would be the target date.