Not many bouts have "explosive" written all over them but the upcoming interim WBA Welterweight title bout certainly does as hard hitting Argentinian Diego Gabriel Chaves (22-0, 18) takes on American Keith Thurman (20-0-0-1, 18) live on Showtime.
Although Chaves is relatively unknown by the wider boxing public he's a fighter who has been receiving a lot of TV time in his homeland courtesy of TYC Sports and thus he's gotten plenty of attention as a fighter there.
Prior to turning professional in 2008 Chaves had been a solid amateur competing at 2007 World Amateur Championships and claiming various national and international titles. It was this amateur experience that helped him get the attention from TC Sports, it was also his amateur success that saw him being dubbed "La Joya" ("The Jewel"). Thankfully for Chaves he has transitioned from the amateurs to the professionals well and really developed as a hard hitter.
Chaves claimed the interim title around a year ago when he stopped Ismael El Massoudi in 2 rounds. Since then he has defended the belt once defeating Jose Miranda, also in 2 round. Unfortunately Chaves has been out of the ring since last September when he beat Miranda and this sort of a layoff could see him with a lot of ring rust, especially when you consider he had fought 21 times in the previous 4 years. Unfortunately part of this layoff was spent waiting for a fight in Dubai against Paulie Malignaggi, a fight that failed to come to fruition.
Style wise Chaves is a hard hitter as mentioned above but is a wild fighter. He's defensively open and appears to leave a lot of chances for a fighter to tag him. His defensive woes have seen him suffering several knockdowns however with his power he's looked like he is happy to have a firefight in the hope of taking his opponents out. He can box when he needs to, though often shows the Latin American machismo rather than his boxing brain.
Whilst Chaves is unknown to the US fanbase it's fair to assume that Thurman isn't. He's a brash but yet charismatic fighter who has been on US TV numerous times often as part of a major undercard giving him major exposure to fans.
Like Chaves, Thurman is a big puncher with genuine lights out power if he connects cleanly and hurtful thudding power if he only manages to land glancing shots. Although he's a big puncher he's more well schooled than Chaves, he's not technically perfect by any stretch of the imagination but he's more defensively sound and more aware of what he's doing when he comes forward and throws. Also like Chaves he has a solid amateur background with more than 100 amateur wins.
Nicknamed "One Time", Thurman seems to feel that he only needs one chance to stop an opponent though he did show last time out that he can box for 12 rounds as he took a decision over the always tough Jan Zaveck. This has been Thurman's only bout to go 12 rounds though I feel he's happy to have proved he can manage the championship distance.
When two big bangers face each other you'd usually favour the more technically rounded fighter and with that in mind I've got to with Thurman here. Both men have question marks hanging over them for sure but with Chaves defensive issues it's going to be next to impossible to back him against any top power puncher.
Of course Chaves could be the next Maidana, Matthysse or Abregu but personally I see him being just a level below that of Abregu, a fringe contender as opposed to a world level guy.
Prediction-Thurman TKO5
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