Keith Thurman recently fell short in his bid to dethrone Sebastian Fundora of his WBC super-welterweight title.
‘One Time’ has since compared Fundora’s punching power to that of eight-division world champion and former opponent Manny Pacquiao.
Thurman lost a split-decision and his undefeated record to Manny Pacquiao back in 2019 after getting knocked down in the opening round and fought one just one more occasion in the six years that followed; returning to action in March 2025 with a knockout win against Brock Jarvis in Australia.
Following that triumph, the former unified welterweight world champion was granted a shot at Fundora’s WBC super-welterweight throne, but ‘The Towering Inferno’ handed Thurman a second career defeat and did so inside the distance, with referee Thomas Taylor waving the fight off in round six.
Speaking with Fight Hub TV, Thurman insinuated that ‘Pac-Man’ punched harder than the reigning WBC 154lb titleholder, as he disagreed with Taylor’s decision to stop their contest.
“If he [Fundora] hit hard then he would have dropped me. Manny Pacquiao dropped me, he didn’t stop me.
“Fundora stopped me, but he didn’t drop me! That is my argument with that one. I understand [why they stopped it], but I say that they pulled the plug quickly.
“Let fighters finish fights, what is wrong with that? What happened to Knockout of the Year? What happened to all of these things that we used to witness back in the day?
“I know that we want to protect our athletes and different things, but a fight is going to be over when the fight is over, or it should be closer to over. Don’t just pull the plug on the fight because it’s a little uncomfortable to watch.”
Thurman is set to fight for a second time this year in a middleweight meeting with Vergil Ortiz Jnr on the Benavidez-Cieslak undercard on Saturday, December 5.
