{"id":180097,"date":"2025-10-05T09:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T09:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/180097\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T09:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T09:02:09","slug":"im-back-where-i-belong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/180097\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Back Where I Belong"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Keith Thurman<\/a> has always talked the talk and walked the walk, but after fighting just twice in the last six years, the proclamations from \u201cOne Time\u201d just don\u2019t ring the same as they once used to.
At 36, Thurman (31-1, 23 KOs) is seeking an Indian summer when he takes on WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora<\/a> (23-1-1, 15 KOs) on October 25 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas to headline a PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view card.<\/p>\n

“This is what the sport is all about. You put Thurman\u2019s name next to anybody and I guarantee you it\u2019s gonna be a fight you won\u2019t wanna miss,” Thurman said in a recent press conference.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m about to conquer Mount Everest himself. They call him The Towering Inferno, but I\u2019ve been in the fire. This is what I live for right here. This is the top of the sport.”<\/p>\n

“Once I get the WBC title, people won\u2019t have a reason to say ‘no’ to a Keith Thurman fight. I\u2019ve been waiting through the setbacks. With the truly great champions, you can\u2019t stop them from becoming champion once again.”<\/p>\n

After beating Robert Guerrero, Luis Collazo, Shawn Porter<\/a> and Danny Garcia<\/a> in a 24-month stretch from 2015-17 to become a unified welterweight champion along the way, Thurman was hit with a rash of injuries and inactivity, fighting just four times since then.
His only loss against Manny Pacquiao<\/a> was July 2019, sandwiched between decision victories against Josesito Lopez and Mario Barrios<\/a>. Thurman made his 154-pound debut in March with a third-round stoppage of Brock Jarvis in his native Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fundora however, is a different kind of beast. Thurman knows it. <\/p>\n

“This is gonna be an action-packed fight,” he said. “This is a beautiful opportunity to step up. You have to see it to believe it, and I truly believe it\u2019s gonna be timber on October 25.<\/p>\n

“Everything that\u2019s happened in the past is water under the bridge. All you can do today is put your best foot forward. I\u2019ve been through so much throughout my career. But here I am, right here right now, back where I belong.<\/p>\n

“I guess you can call me the OG, or whatever you want. But I\u2019m here today because of the love I have in my heart for boxing. I love making people love boxing. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. That\u2019s what big fights are all about.”<\/p>\n

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Keith Thurman has always talked the talk and walked the walk, but after fighting just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":{"0":"post-180097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-schedule","18":"tag-boxing-videos","19":"tag-boxing-results","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-unitedkingdom","37":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}