Keith Thurman (31-1, 23 kos) made his successful return to the ring with a third round of Brock Jarvis’ technical knockout (22-2, 20 kos) on Wednesday night at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
Former WBC and WBO Welterweight Thurman champion, 36, threw Jarvis twice in the third round with long head shots. The referee Will Soulos stopped the match after the second Knockdown. The official break time was at 2:19 in the round.
In the first Knockdown, “One Time” Thurman landed on the right hand on the head of Jarvis who sent him hard. He beat the number when he returned, but looked in poor condition when the action was restarted.
Keith then went for The Kill, unloaded to Jarvis and hit him flat with a left -handed hook. The referee Soulos immediately stopped the match because Brock won’t get up from this knockdown.
In the first round, Thurman threw almost nothing, moving around the ring, trying to stay out of spectrum of the younger, stronger 27 -year -old Jarvis. In the middle of the round, Jarvis rushed to Thurman, nailing him with repeatedly strong body shots that clearly annoyed the old -fashioned former Welterweight champion.
Jarvis was loaded on a left hook that just lost Thurman’s head in seconds of the round. This was a shot that would have caused damage if it had been connected.
Thurman landed two hard -body shots in the second round that got the attention of Jarvis, who seemed to hurt him a little. Aussie seemed test after he was hit with these fists and was not as aggressive as he was in the previous round.
Still, Keith did not do much to separate himself from the toughest shots that Brock hit him. You could see the big difference in youth between the two in this round. Thurman looked like a very old man.
In the third round, Thurman pulled Jarvis around the ring, throwing strong but very late right hands and holy hooks. “Once”, then Jarvis was trapped against the ropes and landed a perfectly placed right to put him hard on the canvas. Paradoxically, Brock returned from Knockdown, but did not look in any situation still struggling. Thurman went after him and finished the job with a left hook that put him on the canvas.
Waste of speed
The race was Thurman’s first over three years since February 5, 2022 and seemed much slower than he had in his latest competition against Mario Barrios that year. Thurman has a lot of his game in terms of the speed and mobility of his hands since he is not going to return.
With this victory over Jarvis, Thurman is expected to face former WBO Junior Middleweight Tim Tszyu champion in Australia. Tszyu lost his last two matches and comes from a vicious third Knockdown loss against champion IBF Bakhram Murtazaliev.
You have to favor Tszyu over Thurman in this fight because of how late and the old Keith looked at tonight. The lack of speed and work percentage would put Thurman at the mercy of almost any top 15 Junior Middleweight. He has lost much of his game to beat the top 154-pounders. Based on his performance tonight, I can’t think of a remarkable candidate that Thurman could win.
Last update on 03/12/2025
2025-03-12 15:09:00
