Keith Thurman rumored to be injured again, May 19th fight date at risk

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox

Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman is rumored to have suffered a hand injury, and he might not be able to fight on May 19th, according to ESPN. Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) is already dealing with coming back from elbow surgery that has sidelined him since his fight against Danny Garcia last March.

The WBA and WBC sanctioning bodies still haven’t stripped Thurman of his two 147 lb. titles even though it’s been 12 months since he last defended them. However, if the increasingly more fragile Thurman pulled out of the May 19 fight date on Showtime Boxing, then it’s hard to imagine the WBA and WBC allowing the 28-year-old ‘One Time’ to hold onto his two titles. Being out of the ring 1 ½ years with injuries would be really pushing the limits to what the sanctioning bodies are willing to handle with an injured fighter.

Many boxing fans have started calling Thurman, “Sometimes” and “One Time a Year.” The sanctioning bodies have been very patient in allowing Thurman to hold onto his 2 welterweight titles even though he’s not scheduled to be back until May 19th, which is 14 months since his last fight in March of 2017.

If the rumors are true that Thurman has a hand injury on top of his elbow problem, then it’ll be asking too much of the fighters and the sanctioning bodies to wait on Thurman to heal up and finally defend his titles. Thurman’s injuries problems have limited him to fighting just once in 2016 and 2017. He fought Shawn Porter in 2016 and Danny Garcia in 2017.

Thurman has created a firestorm of criticism lately with him saying that he wanted to devote the entire 2018 as a “get back year” with him taking soft fights to get healthy again before facing the likes of Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia and Errol Spence Jr. Porter is Thurman’s WBC mandatory challenger, and Danny Garcia is his #1 WBA challenger.

IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. just wants to fight Thurman fight to unify the titles, but he’s been told that fight won’t happen until at least 2019. If the rumors are true of Thurman having an elbow injury, then he’s going to have to have to forget about that. Thurman will be lucky if he doesn’t get stripped of his two titles by the WBA and WBC.

It’s too bad Thurman has had so many injury problems, because he was viewed as someone that could make big waves in the welterweight division. Unfortunately, his body keeps breaking down on him. Thurman didn’t look good in beating Porter in 2016 and Danny Garcia in 2017. Those were fights Thurman barely won.