Keith Thurman is great in more ways than one, but did the passage of time cause the talent to slip away?

Years from now, it's easy to imagine the two old-timers sitting on their front porch, talking boxing, when Keith Thurman's name comes up.

"The kid could punch a little," the one man says to the other. "Yep. And he could box a little, too," the second man says in reply.

"And he could talk some, too. Was great to listen to," the first man said.

They both nod their heads affirmatively. 

"I thought that guy would become something big," the second man finally says. "Real big. Whatever happened to that guy?"

It's true. Thurman could have been something big. Real big. But as we sit here today, he's the B side of a pay-per-view to an Australian boxer who has fought just once in the U.S. and who is best known in the U.S. as the son of a Hall of Famer.

Keith Thurman could fight, and he knew how to sell a fight. But just as he was moving into his prime selling years, when there were numerous big fights lined up for him, he largely went missing. 

On June 25, 2016, Thurman successfully defended his WBA welterweight title via unanimous decision over Shawn Porter in a bout that drew 3.1 million viewers on CBS. Thurman was hot at that point. He was 27-0 with 22 knockouts after that fight and potential mega-fights for him abounded.

Since then, Thurman has fought four more times, going 3-1 with no knockouts. After a win over Danny Garcia, he didn't box again for a year, 10 months and 23 days until he fought Josesito Lopez. Six months after Lopez, he faced the great Manny Pacquiao, and after a first-round knockdown, fought his way back so that he nearly won a decision. And then he went missing again.

After Pacquiao, it was two years, six months and 17 days until Thurman would fight again, when he met Mario Barrios. And by the time he faces Tim Tszyu on March 30 for the WBO super welterweight title in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view card on Amazon Prime Video at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, it will have been a year, 10 months and 23 days since he last fought.

Thurman has fought four times since beating Porter. In that same period, Canelo Alvarez has fought 15 times. It's no wonder that Alvarez remained one of boxing's biggest stars, top draws and most highly paid fighters. He was facing the best fighters in the world on a regular basis and was constantly in the news. Thurman largely went MIA. On March 30, it will have been seven years, nine months and six days since he met Porter, and it will be only his fifth fight in that period.

"Anything worth anything in life requires sacrifice, and I've done a lot at 147. I'm a dreamer. I want to do great things at 154. I want to show the world the type of champion Keith Thurman is. I'm the kind of champion like Ali. You put me back in the ring and I'm going to rise back to the top. You know, that's what this is all about. People have comments. People have suggestions, People come up with their statistics, you know? But at the end of the day, they're not with Keith Thurman. They're not seeing my grind. They're not in my head. They don't understand my mindset and that's what March 30 is all about, is just proving to the world that Keith Thurman was, is and will be forever and ever one of the greatest fighters in the sport." -- Keith Thurman at news conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday

Stephen Espinoza, the former president of Showtime Sports who is working as a consultant for Amazon helping with the boxing broadcast, raved about Thurman and said, correctly, he had everything one could want in a fighter.

"Keith was one of the most talented and skilled welterweights of his generation," Espinoza said. "He had you all of the talents outside the ring, too. Keith is a  multi-faceted personality. That's not to say that other boxers didn't have outside interests, but Keith was into so much. He loved to travel. He loved to read. He loved to write poetry. He went abroad and fell in love. Life happens, and we need to understand that. I'm not saying that's a reason for all of his inactivity, but part of it is.

"He spent a lot of time out of the country. He found the love of his life and got married. Maybe from a business standpoint it was a lost opportunity and it was certainly a loss for boxing fans. But I believe it gave him greater personal satisfaction to make the choices he did."

Thurman could fight and he could talk, and whenever one finds a fighter with that Daily Double, it conjures up images of one man: Muhammad Ali.

"I want to be careful because you can get in trouble with these types of analogies, but he had a little bit of that Ali in him," Espinoza said. "He was that compelling to me to hear. He had the charisma. He had the sense of humor. He had the boldness and the braggadocio. And he had really all of the tools to be a generational boxer."

Thurman is 35, young in life but on the back nine for a professional boxer. The question is, can he ever regain a piece of what he once seemed to be?

At a news conference Wednesday in Los Angeles to formally kick off the Tszyu-Thurman promotion, Thurman showed his gift for gab and his ability to sell a fight. Tszyu did his part and said he wants to pattern himself after fighters of yore, who fought frequently and took on tough opponents on a regular basis.

Sugar Ray Robinson is widely regarded as the greatest boxer in history for a variety of reasons, but certainly one of them was for his willingness to fight the best. He once fought the legendary Jake LaMotta twice in three weeks.

"I aspire to the throwback fighters," Tszyu said in answer to a question from press conference emcee Jimmy Lennon Jr.  "I feel like fighters these days, and in this modern era, are just a bunch of pussies. When I grew up back in the 2000s, everyone just fought the best. And that's what I am."

Lennon then turned to Thurman and asked him about moving from welterweight to super welterweight, and it was there that it made one wonder. He gave a great answer, but he didn't address the issue of his inactivity.

Thurman is one of the brightest boxers I've ever come across, and has always been a joy to talk with. But as he talks about his desire to dominate at 154, one has to wonder if he's considered the years he's let slip past.

"Anything worth anything in life requires sacrifice, and I've done a lot at 147," Thurman said. "I'm a dreamer.I want to do great things at 154. I want to show the world the type of champion Keith Thurman is. I'm the kind of champion like Ali. You put me back in the ring and i'm going to rise back to the top. You know, that's what this is all about. People have comments. People have suggestions, People come up with their statistics, you know?

"But at the end of the day, they're not with Keith Thurman. They're not seeing my grind. They're not in my head. They don't understand my mindset and that's what March 30 is all about is just proving to the world that Keith Thurman was, is and will be forever and ever one of the greatest fighters in the sport."

I hope he's right.

I worry he's not. No one beats Father Time, not even Keith "One Time" Thurman.