Keith Thurman weighs in on the heavyweight division

When Floyd Mayweather announced his latest retirement, most of the boxing world reacted to the news with open arms.

There is no denying that if Mayweather were still active today, he would still be ranked as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional. On the other hand, there is no doubt that his retirement has created a vacuum in the 147 and 154-pound divisions, respectively.

Who is the best fighter in those divisions today? Now, it is not as much of a universal consensus, but more of a ubiquitous debate as to who is in control of the throne.

WBA World welterweight champion Keith Thurman sees the situation similar to that of the heavyweight division when ex-heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko retired in 2013.

“I think that’s something that’s being fought out right now,” Thurman said when asked by Michelle Joy Phelps who was the best heavyweight boxer in the game today.

“The one Klitschko just got beat, but the other brother already retired, and he was holding down forever. If he was still in the game, I would have to give it to him, but because he stepped out of the game, we have all these new guys rising up.”

But what about the whacking man who defeated Klitschko? Tyson Fury has proven not only to be a decent pugilist, but also an aspiring English tenor.

“He’s definitely a character, but obviously, he has skills,” Thurman said of Fury. “The fight that he had to gain the title [against Klitschko], it wasn’t that superiorly impressive by any means.”

Thurman went on to describe the heavyweight division as “definitely one of the hardest divisions to hold down.”

“It is easy to get knocked out. Heavyweights knockout heavyweights all the time. [An] underdog heavyweight knocking out and beating up the better heavyweight per se, but as long as the power is there, it’s a threat; it’s a major threat in the heavyweight division when it comes to power.”

While Thurman is interested in seeing more in what the 27-year-old world heavyweight champion has to offer for the heavyweight division, he has not seen enough of Fury yet to predict how he would perform against Deontay Wilder, the current WBC World heavyweight champion.

Wilder (36-0, 35 KO’s) has frightening power, and he recently put that on display at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, as Artur Szpilka ate an enormous right hand, putting the Russian to sleep in the ninth round in what was, to that point, an entertaining affair.

“At the end of the day, Wilder is the kind of fighter where you don’t want to get hit by him; you really don’t,” he explained. “Wilder has shown signs of still-needed development in his overall boxing ability, but he has the confidence when he’s in that ring, he does use his athleticism when he’s in the ring, and he definitely always brings the power.”

As Thurman has said time and time again, he wants to transform boxing, “Out with the old, in with the new.”

And one of those up-and-coming heavyweights is a man named Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KO’s), who will be fighting for his first major world title April 9 against newly-crowned IBF World heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23-0-1, 21 KO’s).

“I hear a lot of good things about that boy [Anthony Joshua]; I’ve only seen a few highlights, but obviously I believe he was an Olympian, and he’s well-rounded. I believe as he moves up into the ranks, he does have the possibility to be a threat for any heavyweight champion of the world.”

Every sport, every field, has a major transformation in its history.

NASCAR no longer has Jeff Gordon, but a young star in Chase Elliott has risen. Boxing no longer has Floyd Mayweather as a competitor, but who will take his place?

We will have to wait and see.

-Ryan O’hara/ @OharaSports