Interview: Dan Birmingham’s St. Petersburg Stable

Interview: Dan Birmingham’s St. Petersburg Stable

By John Pullman, Doghouse Boxing (July 20, 2009)

Dan Birmingham is best known for his tutelage of future hall of fame boxing phenom Ronald “Winky” Wright. Dan is also known for doing a lot of great work with former Super Middleweight Champ Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy and he also spent some time with “Bad” Chad Dawson. Both of whom have fights on the horizon, Dawson with Glenn Johnson and Lacy with Roy Jones Jr. But Dan is spending his time these days developing a new group of young, explosive professionals, who he believes are destined for greatness.

“I got a terrific heavyweight, his name is Lenroy Thomas, he’s Jamaican, he’s 6’4,” about 250, he’s southpaw and he is 13 and 1. He should be 14 and 0 but he got a bad decision his very first pro fight … Real nice kid … He’s signed with TKO promotions, Chet Koerner,” says Dan.

Lenroy “TNT” Thomas will be looking to continue his winning streak at the Grand Hyatt in Tampa Bay, Florida, on July 25th.

A big exciting heavyweight, with a high knockout ratio like Thomas, fits nicely into the heavyweight picture and would be plenty to talk about alone, but Dan doesn’t stop there. Birmingham continues going down his talented list, next up a highly touted welterweight; Keith Thurman.

Although Dan is excited about the skills of Thurman, he has a heavy heart about training him alone. “His trainer passed away about 2 months ago, a guy named Ben Getty … A good friend of mine, and I was more like their assistant trainer and now I have taken over as Keith Thurman’s trainer …”A sentimental Birmingham states.

Although Dan became Thurman’s head trainer through tragedy, he refuses to let Ben Getty’s hard work go to waste. Birmingham has high hopes for Thurman. Dan continues, “He’s (Thurman) a six time national amateur Champion … He lost a close decision to go to the Olympics … And I’ll tell you what, this kid can really whack! He’s 9 and 0 with 8 first round knockouts … He just signed with Shelly Finkel, Shelly is starting to put him on some big stages now … I think this kid can really be champ, I really do … I think he’s really got the tools, he’s a good boxer, he’s tough as nails, he’s got a real good amateur pedigree, he started boxing when he was 7 years old and he’s only 20 now … He’s a real good kid, hard-worker, dedicated.”

Birmingham is taking Thurman to fight in Tucson, Arizona on the 13th of August.

Birmingham rounds out his quality prospects with an undefeated light heavyweight “And I got a kid Adam Hubinger, he’s 13 and 0, 11 knockouts, he’s from the Czech Republic, he was one of the top amateurs over there,” states the world renown trainer.

Adam and Dan plan to make a show stopping appearance in New York on the 19th of August.

And for all you Winky fans, (including myself), Dan lets us know what’s next for Mr. Wright. “Winky told me he is going to do a Pay-Per- View in Puerto Rico … I believe in October.”

So let us all be on the lookout for the St. Petersburg Stable, because with Dan’s knowledge and all the hard work they are putting in, it is just a matter of time before we see Birmingham’s next Champion.

Thanks so much to Mr. Dan Birmingham for taking the time out to speak with me.