Speaker 1: It is my pleasure to be joined on the podcast
Speaker 1: this week by Keith, one time Terman, the former unified
Speaker 1: welterweight champion of the world. But Keith, you are now
Speaker 1: fighting as if you're a bit away. First of all,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show. I know you're a little late.
Speaker 1: You're helping your daughter do some school stuff, so welcome,
Speaker 1: Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 2: Happy to be here man, just grinding it out. We're
Speaker 2: weeks away from the big fight.
Speaker 1: Exactly, so I'll tell everybody what you're going to be doing.
Speaker 1: You have a fight, a rescheduled fight that was supposed
Speaker 1: to originally take place last October. You will challenge the
Speaker 1: WBC Junior Middleweight world Champion, Sebastian Fondora for his title.
Speaker 1: Will take place on March twenty eighth, live on PBC
Speaker 1: on Prime Video pay per view from the MGM Grand
Speaker 1: Gardnera in Las Vegas, one of the great venues in
Speaker 1: the history of the world. And as I mentioned, Keith,
Speaker 1: the fight was supposed to take place last October, the
Speaker 1: fight was two weeks away. He suffered a hand injury,
Speaker 1: the fight was postponed. And that's really the same position
Speaker 1: you've been in on the other side. Where you were
Speaker 1: a guy that was a couple of you know, two
Speaker 1: weeks ten days away from a important fight, and you
Speaker 1: suffer an injury, fight gets canceled, and I just wonder.
Speaker 1: I've dealt with fights being postponed numerous times, but I'm
Speaker 1: not the fighter always curious how that impacts the guys
Speaker 1: that it does impact the two men that are supposed
Speaker 1: to get in the ring, where women for that matter.
Speaker 1: You always had a full camp and then suddenly one
Speaker 1: day there's no fight and no payday to go with it,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be very disappointing and kind of
Speaker 1: bums everybody out. So talk to me about what happened
Speaker 1: in October and sort of dealing with that situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you said, you know, I mean overall, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's just a bummer, you know, you know, because you
Speaker 3: had a fight schedule for October, and then my birthday
Speaker 3: month is November, and then of course holiday seasons December,
Speaker 3: so you know, we were hoping to get the fight
Speaker 3: and move into the.
Speaker 2: Year this year, the new year of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: As champion, right, and you know, it's been a long
Speaker 3: time since we got the ball rolling. I finally had
Speaker 3: after my setback and my injury when I had to
Speaker 3: pull out two weeks for the Tim Zoo fight, which
Speaker 3: led Fondora into the world championship status that he holds today.
Speaker 4: You know, because he replaced you in that fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was the replacement, you know. So the thing
Speaker 3: about Fundora last year is he's the champ. You don't
Speaker 3: replace champions. You don't just call people champ.
Speaker 2: We need another chimps come in two week notice, make
Speaker 2: a fight happen.
Speaker 3: That doesn't happen, right, So I understood the scenario and
Speaker 3: the postponement, but that was just an unfortunate year once
Speaker 3: again where it's hard to get the ball rolling for
Speaker 3: killing Tom Thurman.
Speaker 1: Since your two fights in twenty nineteen to win against
Speaker 1: Joses Seed Lopez and the loss of your title to
Speaker 1: Manny Pacyah, you know, it's been slow going. You had
Speaker 1: just a fight against Mario Barrios in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: You came back off of three and that was you know,
Speaker 1: you had a good win in that fight, came off
Speaker 1: a three year layoff, a lot of it injury related.
Speaker 1: You went to Australia look good, I thought, in a
Speaker 1: third round knockout against brock Jarvis on Enemy Territory, and
Speaker 1: I'm wondering just how how frustrating is with the layoffs
Speaker 1: and and and the injuries that we talked about just
Speaker 1: before about with fights being postponed because of your injury,
Speaker 1: the forced the Zoo fight off, and of course then
Speaker 1: Fundora's injury that delayed this fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: last year was really it was it was fun, you know,
Speaker 3: because we opened up that brock Jarvis fight early in
Speaker 3: the year and it just felt good, right after three
Speaker 3: years once again, another from Mario Barrio's fight was a
Speaker 3: two and a half year comeback, then brock Jarvis was
Speaker 3: a three year comeback, right, So just all that inactivity,
Speaker 3: it was very unfortunate.
Speaker 2: But I got to be, like you said on Enemy.
Speaker 3: Territory, foreign land. But that's what I love about boxing.
Speaker 3: Boxing's taking me all over the world. Boxing's allowed me
Speaker 3: to see places in cities that my mother never took
Speaker 3: me up. Even in the amateur days.
Speaker 2: We would just go to Fort Lauderdale for sparring, Fort
Speaker 2: Pierce for competitions.
Speaker 3: I go all over the state of Florida. Then we
Speaker 3: go to regional events and national events, and I was going.
Speaker 3: I was always traveling. I got to fight in Canada
Speaker 3: as an amateur, got to fight in Canada as a pro,
Speaker 3: and so it just felt good because my roots in
Speaker 3: boxing is I'm not scared.
Speaker 2: To travel and go places.
Speaker 3: I've done it throughout my whole career, but obviously New York, Vegas,
Speaker 3: La Texas, Florida. We got plenty of action in the US,
Speaker 3: and so for the majority of my career I've been
Speaker 3: US bound. But it just felt good to get out
Speaker 3: there to meet the fans, because when you have world
Speaker 3: championship status, two time former world champion, you know you
Speaker 3: have fans from all over the world.
Speaker 2: You see them pop up in your feed.
Speaker 3: Oh love from the Philippines, love from the UK, love
Speaker 3: from Brazil, Like you know, we really have that status,
Speaker 3: world championship status. So it was a lot of fun
Speaker 3: to go to Sydney, have that comeback fight and interact
Speaker 3: with the fans that I haven't been able to interact
Speaker 3: with throughout my career. So that was really just a
Speaker 3: lovely experience. It was a blessing. It was kind of
Speaker 3: bucket list for me. I've always wanted to travel and
Speaker 3: make fights like that.
Speaker 2: Happen.
Speaker 3: So it was a beautiful experience. But we thought that
Speaker 3: we would get this ball roll in. I didn't get
Speaker 3: a summer fight, But.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about that was the big thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to Australia, you fought Jarvis, that was all predicated that
Speaker 1: you were going to be fighting Tim Zoo. He was
Speaker 1: ringside calling your fight. A few weeks later after your victory,
Speaker 1: he got his own victory, knocked out Joey Spencer, and
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, now we're going to see this, this
Speaker 1: fight that a lot of people were interested in. Keith
Speaker 1: one time terming against Tim Zoo and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he's not in the fight. He ends up going
Speaker 1: and taking the rematch against Sebastian Fundora, who dominates him,
Speaker 1: stops him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what happened to the fight between you and Tim?
Speaker 3: You know, I mean it's pretty obvious he had options.
Speaker 3: You can only fight one guy at a time. This
Speaker 3: is not wwe people. We will not be seeing mashups
Speaker 3: where everyone gets in the rig and throwing each other
Speaker 3: all around the place. You know, maybe one day Dana
Speaker 3: White will make something happen, who knows, you know, But
Speaker 3: for right now, that's not what world class boxing is about.
Speaker 3: So he must have had these options on the table,
Speaker 3: and his team chose to go for their strike at
Speaker 3: being champion of the world once again.
Speaker 2: I think that was obviously the pool.
Speaker 3: You know, we can say like, oh, you know, they
Speaker 3: saw my power, they saw I was how well my
Speaker 3: movement was.
Speaker 2: Maybe they just.
Speaker 3: Thought, you know, he's not old enough just yet, he's
Speaker 3: still a threat, and the reward is not there. If
Speaker 3: he's not champion, the reward is not there. I think
Speaker 3: that personally, they did see me as somewhat of a threat,
Speaker 3: and they saw Fandora, who had the title, a lesser
Speaker 3: of a threat. And why did they Why did they
Speaker 3: see him as a lesser of a threat because the
Speaker 3: first time they fought, Fondora won on the on the
Speaker 3: back end of his jab, and the only damage that
Speaker 3: tim Zu suffered was the damage he dealt to himself
Speaker 3: when he when he went into Fandora's elbow.
Speaker 2: And he was cut and bleeding.
Speaker 3: So in his mind, Fandora didn't beat him up right
Speaker 3: in his mind.
Speaker 1: And you look, you look pretty friend. You looked like
Speaker 1: a guy off a three year layoff against Rock Jarvis,
Speaker 1: So you know.
Speaker 2: So I think they their risk reward.
Speaker 3: I thought, you know, hey, before we fight Thurman, let
Speaker 3: us become champions again. Little did they know that the
Speaker 3: reason why Fandora was so timid in that fight was
Speaker 3: two reasons. Reason Number one, he was coming off of
Speaker 3: a KO loss to Mendoza.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, Brian Mendoza, right, brember Tis the layup I
Speaker 1: thought was the guy that knocked him out. Well, it
Speaker 1: was for the it was for the IDF title.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's Zoo. I got you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm talking about Frondora.
Speaker 4: I got you.
Speaker 2: How Fandora got dropped? Right, So Fandora got dropped.
Speaker 3: Now he's being a two week replacement against the undefeated
Speaker 3: Tim Zoo. That everybody I was an eight to one underdog,
Speaker 3: you know. So they were saying he was really scary.
Speaker 3: So I think a lot of that made fendor be
Speaker 3: very timid his loss and the two week notice, and
Speaker 3: they were trying to be very conservative. They took a
Speaker 3: very conservative approach, and they were able to be victorious.
Speaker 3: When the second fight came around, they realized like, hey,
Speaker 3: Tim Zuo wasn't really that scary. Maybe I can hold
Speaker 3: my ground more, Maybe I don't need to be so
Speaker 3: timid and we all, well, we all saw Tim Zoo
Speaker 3: get dropped. We all saw his downfall, and Fandora got
Speaker 3: his matchup earlier last year, right, I think like within
Speaker 3: weeks after my fight, ye, he had a fight and
Speaker 3: he had a great performance, and I think that was
Speaker 3: a big confidence booster, so that when they renegotiated, he
Speaker 3: stepped into that ring last summer with all that confidence,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: And I want to get to a few other things
Speaker 4: beause I know we're gonna run out of time, So.
Speaker 3: Maybe I wanted to say that because of that, he's
Speaker 3: going to be stepping into March twenty eighth with more confidence.
Speaker 3: He's gonna be he believes in himself once again. It's
Speaker 3: not easy to be coming off of KO losses and
Speaker 3: re establish that valor of a true fighting champion. But
Speaker 3: I believe Sebastian Fandora is exactly right there in his
Speaker 3: mental game, physical game, and me versus him in a
Speaker 3: few weeks from now is going to be fireworks.
Speaker 1: Well, he did look pretty good against him in the rematch,
Speaker 1: for sure. One thing I always have to ask Sebastian
Speaker 1: Fandora opponents is about the wild discrepancy in the height.
Speaker 1: You are a listed that five foot nine. He is
Speaker 1: listed at six foot five. He's a very tall man.
Speaker 1: I'm six foot I've stood next to him. I gotta
Speaker 1: look up. Uh, how do you deal with that? And
Speaker 1: how do you even try to simulate that in a sparring?
Speaker 3: Gotta get my spar partner six foot six and six
Speaker 3: foot four.
Speaker 4: Okay, I got.
Speaker 2: I got good guys. You know.
Speaker 3: One happens to be a heavyweight, which is it's a
Speaker 3: little annoying. I told myself, I said, we're not hiring
Speaker 3: no heavyweights. And then look what I ended up doing.
Speaker 1: I who these guys are that you're that are in
Speaker 1: with that are so tall?
Speaker 3: Uh? We got we got Michael Fox and then man
Speaker 3: my my other guys. My trainer Tony brought him in.
Speaker 3: They're really close from winter Haven, and I don't have
Speaker 3: his name off the top of my head right now.
Speaker 4: Okay, but it's I know Michael Fox is obviously he's
Speaker 4: got the height for sure, so you're you.
Speaker 2: He got the height.
Speaker 3: Tim Zu used him and Brian Mendoza use them in camps.
Speaker 3: He's the go to guy for the Fundora fight. He's
Speaker 3: the go to sparing partner. He's got a really nice
Speaker 3: long jab and we.
Speaker 2: Just we just get used to it.
Speaker 3: I was already doing I was already working with these
Speaker 3: two individuals last year, and just so happens.
Speaker 2: That we could Recordinate Camp all over again. I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 3: I'm very grateful to my sparing partners because they're giving
Speaker 3: me the looks that I need to understand that, like
Speaker 3: you said, discrepancy and to cover that distance.
Speaker 2: It's it's a game, you know, it's footwork.
Speaker 3: It's in and out, and you might, you know, I
Speaker 3: might be swinging in and missing a little bit, and
Speaker 3: then I got to press a little harder, and you know,
Speaker 3: but eventually, you know, I'm I'm learning how to touch
Speaker 3: these guys. And that's given me confidence that you know,
Speaker 3: Fondora too, he will be touched.
Speaker 1: So during the last few years, since you've been somewhat
Speaker 1: idle and now you're thirty seven, we've discussed the inactivity
Speaker 1: situation with your career. These twenty eight years old. He
Speaker 1: seems to be in his prime. He's certainly been more
Speaker 1: active than you. What is the case that you make
Speaker 1: while you beat him based on those factors.
Speaker 3: Gill's face, the bills man, look at the resume, look
Speaker 3: at the resume from the amateurs to the pros. Keith
Speaker 3: Thurmans fought the best in the world my whole life,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: I was by the time I was sixteen years old.
Speaker 3: My sparring partners were Winki right, Jeff Lacy and Twine Echos,
Speaker 3: Chad Dawson, Andre Burdo.
Speaker 4: Okay, a lot of good guys.
Speaker 3: I've I've been in I've just been in the ring.
Speaker 3: I've been in the ring with some of the best
Speaker 3: fighters that boxing can can give. You know, right before
Speaker 3: the Olympic Trials, I was sparring Anthony Drell Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and one thing you just mentioned is all the
Speaker 1: top quality names that you will fought. It made me
Speaker 1: think bat the fact, and I don't on my social media.
Speaker 1: I like to post my memorabilia, my posters and programs
Speaker 1: and such. And I recently posted the posters from your
Speaker 1: your tremendous battle you had with Danny Garcia nine years
Speaker 1: ago this month. That was the fight and you were
Speaker 1: that was a big time fight. It was live on CBS,
Speaker 1: did millions of viewers. You're like on the verge. What
Speaker 1: I thought was big time start him at that point.
Speaker 1: You're on a tremendous run you had defended your welterweight title,
Speaker 1: beat Robert Carrero, beat Lewis Colazo by knockout, had a
Speaker 1: big win against Sean Porter, and then you beat Garcia
Speaker 1: and you're just you're cruising, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: You're You're everything is going tremendous, and then you're out
Speaker 1: after that fight for like two years. Do you ever
Speaker 1: let yourself think or allow yourself to think about what
Speaker 1: might have been with your career had you not had
Speaker 1: the injuries and you were able to be more active.
Speaker 2: You know, water under the bridge.
Speaker 3: You know you can't you can't help, but you can't
Speaker 3: help in life. You know, I don't wish anybody to
Speaker 3: have Keith Thurman's story.
Speaker 2: You know, it's just for me. It's my story, it's
Speaker 2: my comeback. You can't have a comeback like me.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's just for me, all right, But no, Like honestly, man,
Speaker 3: I don't wish this upon any fighter, any athlete.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: After Danny Garcia, it was bone spur surgery, right yeah.
Speaker 3: And then after Manny pacyall it was bone fusion surgery,
Speaker 3: and then two weeks before the Tim Zoo fight, it
Speaker 3: was bicep tending surgery. Right, So at thirty seven years old,
Speaker 3: I'm three surgeries in and you know, and just still grinding.
Speaker 2: It just is what it is.
Speaker 3: I did my best to you know, obviously, when I
Speaker 3: came back in twenty nineteen, I made the fights and
Speaker 3: I made the pack y'all fight, and you know, we
Speaker 3: always made great action. And then really it was after
Speaker 3: that in twenty twenty in COVID there were some decisions
Speaker 3: I made that weren't good for my career. I chose
Speaker 3: not to fight when I got the phone call. I
Speaker 3: didn't know what the repercussions of that were gonna. Do
Speaker 3: you remember when Sean Porter was one of the first
Speaker 3: to come back for PBC in the Fox studio with
Speaker 3: no fans. Yes, So I got that phone call first down,
Speaker 3: and I turned it down because I.
Speaker 4: But to fight somebody, to fight somebody, yeah, not to.
Speaker 2: Fight, not a rematch with Sean, to fight somebody.
Speaker 3: I was coming off of my first career loss against
Speaker 3: Mandy pacyall they just wanted to keep me in the limelight,
Speaker 3: which I should have meditated on more. But I gave
Speaker 3: a quick answer or quick reaction, which was this sounds
Speaker 3: boring because I just fought in the MGM Grand with
Speaker 3: a packed arena, you know, and little did I know
Speaker 3: the repercussions, little did we all know what COVID was
Speaker 3: bringing us, right, So there was that.
Speaker 2: Then once Vegas opened up, there was a lot of fighters.
Speaker 3: That didn't get to fight, and because I wasn't champion,
Speaker 3: I wasn't pushed to the frontline at that time. But
Speaker 3: eventually I got my contract to fight Mario Barrios, right,
Speaker 3: and so even after that political things hit.
Speaker 2: It wasn't my choice this time.
Speaker 3: It was more some networks, some politics happening, and because
Speaker 3: I fought, I beat Barrios. But Barrios was back in
Speaker 3: the ring before I was back in the ring, right, which.
Speaker 4: I always find unusual when things like that happened.
Speaker 2: So, you know, I don't want anybody to have my story.
Speaker 3: But luckily, thirty years in the game, I've been living
Speaker 3: this dream since I was seven years old, and I
Speaker 3: still believe big things are coming. I finally got my
Speaker 3: opportunity seven years from twenty nineteen. It's a seven year
Speaker 3: comeback people, not approximately it would be seven years this summer.
Speaker 3: It's approximately a seven year comeback from twenty nineteen that
Speaker 3: your man won one time is finally getting a world
Speaker 3: title shot.
Speaker 2: They only want me to fight a giant.
Speaker 3: They only want me to fight the living, walking, breathing
Speaker 3: Mount everest of a man fun Dora. But I'm ready,
Speaker 3: I'm focused, I do. I have all the confidence in
Speaker 3: the world that we're gonna represent and do what we
Speaker 3: do best, and that's put everybody through the Keith Thurman test.
Speaker 1: So I'll just wrap up with this then, because you
Speaker 1: just mentioned about that you're back, and it's not like
Speaker 1: you feel like you're going anywhere. You win this title.
Speaker 1: You're you're back in big time business. It'll be your
Speaker 1: second fight at one fifty four, but it's one of
Speaker 1: the best divisions in boxing, and your presence in it
Speaker 1: gives it another big name you've got besides yourself. In Fondora,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of conversation about you know what's gonna
Speaker 1: be if it's fight between Virgil Ortiz and Boots and
Speaker 1: this takes place, a very hot fight that a lot
Speaker 1: of people want to see. Sanders Aias is his unified champion.
Speaker 1: He just recently unified not that long ago. Josh Kelly
Speaker 1: just won a title where Tazalev is there. Tim Zu
Speaker 1: is still around, came back with the victory. If you
Speaker 1: get this win that, I know what you expect to
Speaker 1: do is what's the and I know you want to
Speaker 1: fight the biggest fights. What's the big fight you think
Speaker 1: for yourself after this?
Speaker 3: You know that's interesting, you know, I really, I really
Speaker 3: don't know, you know, because this is completely a new division.
Speaker 3: Like you said, there's a list of hot names. But
Speaker 3: you know, I'm kind of at I feel like I'm
Speaker 3: ready to go in any direction.
Speaker 4: Right. We'll hear the money.
Speaker 3: I'll take fights from I might take fights from one
Speaker 3: forty seven up to one sixty eight.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I just want I want boxing,
Speaker 2: and just put Thorman back in the game.
Speaker 3: Just let Thurman be in the mix, because there's no
Speaker 3: such thing as a bad Keith Darmant fighting as well.
Speaker 1: You're back in You're back in the mix with an
Speaker 1: important fight, fight for the world title against Abastian Fandora.
Speaker 1: I wish you good luck, Keith. I thank you for
Speaker 1: your time in the I look forward to watching your
Speaker 1: fight on March twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Don't blink, That's all I can say. Don't blame enjoy
Speaker 2: the show, Appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Keith thank you sir, take care