"Robert's never been stopped and when I hear a fighter's never been stopped, I hear that as a challenge. Especially being a puncher and knowing that he's coming up from the lighter division...I'm going to do a little wrestling in my training camp here. We're going to get ready. I don't want it to be a shock to me. He's not going to be able to surprise me by roughhousing me on the inside. We're going to do the best that we can...this is a measuring stick to outperform Mayweather in Mayweather's hometown," stated WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman, who talked about his upcoming March 7 clash with former world champion Robert Guerrero during a recent conference call. Check out what else he had to say!
KEITH THURMAN
Keith Thurman: What's up, everybody? We're training hard. We're getting ready. Everybody's stoked. A lot of people are looking forward to what's about to happen in the world of boxing and we're all looking forward to March 7th. So let's do this.
Q: Keith, you kind of expressed, you are the knockout guy and a lot of people, you even said that you don't feel right if you don't get the knockout. You like knockouts. You didn't get that in your last fight. Is that something you want badly in this fight?
K. Thurman: Definitely. We respect Robert. Robert's never been stopped and when I hear a fighter's never been stopped, I hear that as a challenge. Especially being a puncher and knowing that he's coming up from the lighter division. Those fighters, Floyd Mayweather came up from the lighter division. Manny Pacquiao came up from the lighter division. So there are some of the best fighters in the world make their way up into the welterweight division and they hold their own and they go toe-to-toe with guys like me, who were originally 147 pounds, always was and always will be.
Last fight we got a knockdown, so I satisfied a little bit of the puncher in me by producing a knockdown in the first round of the last fight. I just wasn't able to put the icing on the cake by cutting the bow short. We're going to be training extremely hard for this fight. We're truly looking forward to the challenge that 'The Ghost' is going to bring and we are looking forward to having a fight that goes less than 12 rounds, but we will be prepared no matter what the outcome.
Q: Okay, my last question to you is that you do respect his ability to be crafty. You've said there probably will be or could be something in his arsenal that you might not have prepared for that you will have to adjust to in the ring, and among those things you included his ability to hold, to be physical, and you referred to the Andre Berto fight. Can you characterize what you meant by that and how you plan to deal with that?
K. Thurman: We've watched more than just the Andre Berto fight now, and he's an active fighter. He's an active fighter. He will fight you on the inside. He'll try to hit you with his power punches from the outside. He's truly a fighter. He wants to fight and if you're holding him or he's holding you, that doesn't mean that he's going to stop fighting. He will keep fighting every second of the fight. He's well-conditioned from what I've seen. He's saying that he's going to be prepared. I believe the man. We're at the world class level. Every fighter at this stage should be prepared.
But, I'm going to do a little wrestling in my training camp here. We're going to get ready. I don't want it to be a shock to me. He's not going to be able to surprise me by roughhousing me on the inside. We're going to do the best that we can. We're obviously going to bring southpaws sparring into the camp, but I'm not going to be able to bring Guerrero into the camp. You know what I mean? So there should be a few minor changes that I'm going to have to make fighting night but we're going to do the best that we can to be prepared for the fight.
Q: Keith, I just want to follow up on your answer about getting ready for this fight with Robert, and when you have to prepare for a totally different style than what you did your last fight, how excited does that get you to come to the gym every day, and also the challenges that come in getting prepared to fight a guy like Robert Guerrero?
K. Thurman: We're just excited, man. We love to switch it up. I want to fight the boxers. I want to fight the punchers. I want to fight the world, baby. We want the whole world. Come one, come all. So, March 7 is Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero. It's been a long time since I've had to face a fighter like him, who has the experience that he has and has the mentality that he has and has the roughness that he has, and we're looking forward to those challenges and we're looking forward to overcoming them.
Q: I wanted to ask, you had mentioned Robert Guerrero as one of the many on your list that ducked you. Do you still feel that way or did you realize it was boxing politics, and are you going to use that same mentality that you feel he may be a bit intimidated by you and that's why this fight took so long to happen as a bit of an advantage in this fight?
K. Thurman: Most ducking that occurs in the sport of boxing is political, whether it be on the promoter's end, whether it be on the manager's end, or whether it be on the trainer's end. Or, even the fighter's end. Everybody has a reason to go the route that they go in the world of boxing.
I've said this before in my statements. I've said a lot about people who have avoided me, but at the end of the day I'm truly not mad at anybody because we're all in it for the same reasons. We're all in it to have the career that we want and to put food on our tables for our families. This is a career. This is a sport.
So the pride in the fighter in me says, "Let's all fight," but I know the business man in me and the business man inside the rest of these fighters, them and their team are going to strategically plan out their careers. And it's taking a little long, but here I am. Me and 'The Ghost'. He's known that I've been knocking on his door. We've been trying to get this fight for a while. He's ready for it.
They took their time but now they feel like it is the time. He said it himself, I've never fought a fighter like him, and he's correct. I've never fought Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero. Every single fighter is an individual and I look forward to what he brings to the table come March 7th.
Q: Now, Keith, in the lead up to the Bundu fight, you said that Bundu was going to be the closest thing to Mayweather that you were going to fight because of his age, his experience, and his undefeated record at the time. When you take that into consideration, the way that you out boxed him, many fans probably weren't pleased with that because they're known for you to be one time this knock out artist, but you put on a beautiful boxing performance, which in comparison is similar to the Robert Guerrero/Mayweather fight. Is that the same style that you're going to use in this fight for Robert Guerrero?
K. Thurman: We have options in this fight. I plan on Robert coming and trying to take it, trying to bring the dog out in me, show me the dog within himself, and show me how tough he really is and backup all that him and his team have stated before. I pick individually. I pick how I want to perform. I have a game plan mentally going into the fight.
This game plan is, we're going to show him that we can do what we want to do to him. He's going to back up this fight. He's going to move forward this fight. We're going to do our best to control the fight. If I feel like I can control the fight in the middle, or by pushing him to the ropes, or if I can control the fight on the outside, I'm going to figure that out within the first half of the fight. As long as the fight continues after the first half of the fight, I will permanently pick what I need to do to strategically win the complete second half of the fight hands down.
Something that a lot of people don't understand about the sport is if you're not going to get the knockout you've got to prepare for the decision. The only way to fully prepare for the decision is to win seven out of twelve rounds. That's all you need. You need seven hands down. No controversy. You need to win seven out of twelve. That's the fight plan and that's why I say that Mayweather is the best set of round fighter in the world because he's never lost a match.
Q: And question for Keith. Could you amplify a little bit? Talking about all these eyeballs that are going to be on this fight. People are going to be channel flipping, surfing, and if they stop and start watching a brawl, man, they're going to saw you guys can make so many more boxing fans. Can you talk about that a little bit? What a grand opportunity this is.
K. Thurman: This is a dream come true. I remember when I was 10 years old and I was looking through a history book on boxing and I said to myself, wouldn't it be amazing for you, your face to be in a book like this one day? And I believe now that NBC is back into boxing on primetime, many fighters in all of the weight classes have an extreme opportunity to start building that household name. The world will start hearing more about these fighters and eventually our names will get put on the list with Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, Tyson, Evander. So, this is it, man. We're about to bring boxing back 2015. I'm truly looking forward to it.
Q: I remember before when you were promoting the fight with Leonard Bundu from a few months ago, your thing was that you just wanted to fight a big name. You knew that you had a lot of potential, a lot of ability, you were undefeated, knocking guys out, but you kept saying, "I want a big name, I want a big name." Does Robert Guerrero, in your mind, qualify as finally getting a big name?
K. Thurman: He does. Ring Magazine has him ranked right under me. He's ranked number eight right now currently by Ring Magazine. I'm ranked number seven. I think this is a terrific fight. This is how we break the ice. I really believe that my career is truly starting on March 7 fighting Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero in the same venue that he fought Mayweather in. So this is a terrific opportunity to showcase my skills and my talent once more to the world of boxing, but after March 7th they can no longer say who has Keith 'One Time' Thurman fought.
Q: And I asked Robert about the fact that this fight has been discussed for kind of a while now. It's finally come to fruition for March 7, but was it a little bit frustrating that you couldn't get Robert or any other particular big name a little bit sooner, or are you okay with the way the schedules worked out? Because I know this was a fight, like I said, that's been talked about for a little while.
K. Thurman: Of course it could have happened sooner. A lot of things could have happened sooner. Why are Mayweather and Pacquiao still in negotiations right now? Things could always have been done sooner. But, I'm a man of faith. I believe that everything happens for a reason. I'm happy. If we would have fought sooner we would not be the main event, at least not me. I most likely would not have been the main event. It would have had to been some form of a co-feature.
So to be headlining on NBC primetime network I really can't ask for anything else. Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero. This is a perfect opportunity. He wants to make a big statement. No one's beat me to this day, there's no better way in the welterweight division for someone who's jumping up two weight classes to make a better statement besides taking out one of the youngest and toughest welterweights in the division today. And for myself, this is a measuring stick to outperform Mayweather in Mayweather's hometown.
So for both of us this is just extremely exciting and this is a real fight. We both have a lot to gain from a victory here, and March 7th, man, the fans have something truly to look forward to. Put it this way. It's the biggest stage in the last 30 years. Bigger than Mayweather or anything out there.
Q: I had one other question for you, Keith. Having a lot of publicity but I guess basically in the paperwork moves, the WBA has made you its regular title holder as opposed to the interimholder. How did you come to find out about it and what are your thoughts about that?
K. Thurman: I have not come to find out about that. You're the first one to mention anything to me. Me and my team, we joke about it all the time that I'm being treated like a champion, because Mayweather has two belts. They have yet to issue a mandatory for it. He doesn't have to take the mandatory. They can issue the mandatory. He could vacate the belt and I could fight for it. I've been saying that for the past year.
Q: You're the interim title holder. That's what they've said.
K. Thurman: Thank you very much for that. At the end of the day, man, there's a lot of different alphabet belts out there. If that's what they chose to do, I'm truly grateful for that. It's an honor for them to raise me up to that level, but at the end of the day, man, with a belt, without a belt it doesn't matter. In the ring I'm ready to fight Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero March 7 and I'm going to do my job. I'm truly looking forward to it.
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PBC on NBC, will take place Saturday, March 7 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and is promoted by Goossen Promotions. The event will air live on NBC (8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT).
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