San Antonio loves a champion and when "El Azteca" Mario Barrios rallied to score a 12th round knockdown of Batyr Akhmedov to capture the WBA Jr Welterweight crown, becoming San Antonio's first world boxing champion in a quarter-century. He was treated to a hero's welcome. He was honored by Southwest High school where he graduated from. He was also honored by the cities other champions the San Antonio Spurs. He made the first defense of his belt back in his hometown and got a massive applaud when he stopped fellow Texan Ryan Karl in October of last year. When he came up short for the first time in his career against Tank Davis in what was a fight of the year type brawl, Barrios was again treated as a hero when he returned home. San Antonio has continued to celebrate and support El Azteca and he is set to embark on the biggest fight of his career. He will step in with former unified welterweight kingpin, Keith "One Time" Thurman. Thurman held welterweight world titles from 2014-2019 and was working on putting together a hall of fame resume when he suffered his first career loss. A split decision loss to the legendary Manny Pacquiao in July of 2019. Thurman has been inactive since.
That will change, and Thurman will end the 30-month hiatus on January 29th when stepping back in the ring with El Azteca. Thurman has long been linked to a fight with another Texan, Errol Spence Jr, for many years. That fight never came to fruition and Thurman will try and mess with another Texan in Barrios in a fight that will likely lead to the winners getting that Spence fight later in 2022. It's a big test and challenge for the highly inactive Thurman, it's no tune-up fighting a former world champion, showing that he wants to get right back into the mix and challenge for a world title this year. For the San Antonian, it's a huge test, Thurman marks the best fighter Barrios has ever been in with, and it's a monumental step up as well as an incredible display of courage and confidence to step into the ring with an all-time great 147-pounder like Thurman. Barrios clearly wants to become a two-division world champ and now has a clear path to doing so by 2022.