In the Yuriorkis Gamboa fight, Terence got hit with a number of big punches. How concerned were you in the corner with Gamboa’s offense and how Terence was taking the shots?
That’s a good question because we knew he was fast. We tried to prepare for his hand speed, especially how he fights off-balanced. He’ll throw a jab and then a right hand over the top and then he’ll be gone. We didn’t really think about his foot speed but what we did work on was him jumping in and jumping out.
Sometimes he likes to throw that right hand just to throw it, so he could come back with that hook. Just for a rangefinder. And I said to Terence what are you going to do when you he does that. And sure enough, he hit him with it. And first thing Terence said after he got hit was, “I’m going to do this,” which is a split-second reaction. Boom. We worked on that in camp. We worked on his right hook – and Gamboa going in and going out, going in and going out, going in and going out. We just kept repeating that. And thank God we worked on that because that right hook changed the fight. It was spectacular. And after he caught him, the fight went his way.
Was it difficult finding sparring partners for a style as unconventional as Gamboa’s?
Definitely. It was hard. Very hard. It was so fukking hard. We used some guys up in Fort Carson, Colorado; they were amateurs. The W-Cap team, the elite team in the United States, is there. So they had some smaller guys there. But to try to and find a professional fighter like that, it was hard as hell.
Was Terence ever hurt in that fight or did he just take a couple of shots?
In the 9th or 10th round, Terence got hit with a good shot. I think he got buzzed a little bit because he got careless. But he was all right after that. He recovered really well. He got the stinky leg thing but the first thing he did was get low, the same size as Gamboa. He grabbed him, turned him, and walked him backwards. We worked on that – if he ever got hurt. Get down low. Keep your hands up high. Try to grab him as soon as possible. Turn him and get the other guy off his rhythm. But once he recovered, he was cool after that.
Let’s talk about the Ricky Burns fight. It was the first time that you had gone overseas for a bout and it was a title shot. What was the feeling like during camp and the final week in the U.K. as you were getting ready for that fight?
We had a damn good camp. We did have a little problem with the weight. We had to pick up the running. We were running at night. That fight was in February so we had to train in the snow and shyt. But all-in-all, it was a very good camp. We had some very good strength and conditioning trainers. We had to train a certain way for Ricky Burns. We had to make sure that everything in Terence’s arsenal was really sharp. We knew Burns had a good jab so we wanted to take away the jab. When he threw the jab, we wanted to throw our jab, to go underneath his, to catch him. He [Burns] threw his jab like Ali used to throw his jab. He didn’t have the bounce in his feet like Ali did but he would throw the jab and streak out with it. It’s almost like he got an extra two or three inches on it.
But we worked really hard on just staying sharp. It was hard to find sparring partners for that type of style too. Ricky Burns was way better than Viktor Postol. Everyone is like, “Oh no, fukk that.” Yes he was. Ricky Burns was a way better fighter. He was tough.
Was there any concern in that week in Scotland?
No, we got a lot of threats and shyt. I kept my eyes open but nothing happened to us. Overall, everybody was pretty nice to us. Some members of his team got mad at me because I didn’t give him any credit afterward – I think I compared him to a third-place Golden Gloves winner.
But going back to the last question: Burns is way better than Postol. That would be a good fight. Burns-Postol. I bet Burns would beat him.
One thing that Ricky Burns has shown throughout his career is that he doesn’t quit if he’s behind and I think that Postol was a little checked out in the second half of that fight.
Yeah, Postol didn’t know what to do, him or Freddie Roach. They didn’t have a fukking clue what to do. They didn’t have a game plan.
In your opinion, what has been Terrence’s best performance as a pro?
Every fight he gets better and better. They’ve all been really good. I liked the way he knocked [Dierry] Jean out. I liked the way he knocked [Hank] Lundy out. All of them have a different style and you have to be able to beat that style. So I don’t know. That’s a good question. The Prescott performance was actually a pretty good performance. He could have knocked him out but I kept telling him to play it safe and don’t get careless. The Gamboa fight was great too.
I’ve always told him that sometimes you got to box and sometimes you got to fight. Sometimes you can box the shyt out of a motherfukker but sometimes you won’t be able to box. You got to bite down and fight, like you’re fighting in the street.