“Four more minutes, it would have been a lot of fun. I promise you,” Thurman said at the post-fight press conference. “He could have made a mistake.”
When a guy is peering through two slit-sized eyes and claiming he was “in control,” you know the ego is doing all the talking.
Thurman’s “four more minutes” comment is particularly wild because, in boxing time, four minutes is an eternity when you’re being used as a heavy bag. If he couldn’t find an answer in the previous twenty-odd minutes, the idea that he’d suddenly find a magic bullet while his face was falling apart is a massive stretch.
“Whoever the referee was, don’t hire him for main event ever again,” Thurman said. “I never got dropped. I wasn’t buckled. He just jumped in.”
Thurman is ignoring that standing TKO’s exist specifically to prevent the kind of brain trauma that comes from taking 15 unanswered shots while pinned to the ropes. Arguing that a referee should let a fight go longer just because it’s a headliner is a dangerous mindset. A referee’s job description doesn’t change based on the slot on the card.
The final sequence showed something else. Thurman was backed to the ropes, covering up and taking repeated shots as Fundora pressed forward. When he tried to answer, his punches came up short, and Fundora returned with clean, heavy work.
There was no sustained offense coming back. The exchanges had turned into survival, with Fundora walking him down and landing each time he trapped him along the ropes.
Thurman said he felt fine and wanted more time. The way the round was going suggested he wasn’t getting out of it.
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