Thurman Out Until Mid-2020

For the past two years, Keith Thurman has had injuries pile up and confine him to only two fights in that time, the most recent being his first career loss to Manny Pacquiao earlier this year.

“Obviously this hasn’t been my greatest year,” Thurman said on Inside PBC while breaking down this weekend’s Shawn Porter and Errol Spence title unification fight.

Thurman’s bad luck continued following the loss, having surgery on his right hand earlier in September, after trying to rehab it naturally to no-avail.

“I’ve been through so much, with the elbow surgery the inflammation that was in my hand,” Thurman noted to Fox Sports host Kate Abdo. “As athletes, we suffer from time to time, but we endure it.

“The arthritic issue with the metacarpals in my left hand have been there for a year-and-a-half. I had it in the Mann Pacquiao fight, I had it in the Josesito Lopez fight.”

The Lopez fight was the first for Thurman since defeating Danny Garcia in 2017, which set forth a two-year span where he’d undergo numerous surgeries to his arm and elbow.

“If I had to put a percentage on it… I’d say at least 50%,” Thurman said on how much the injuries affected his two 2019 performances.

“I had to have surgery about two weeks ago. What they’re trying to do is fuse my bones together,” Thurman explained of the efforts to restore him back to full health. “It’s a surgical process. It’s going to take about six months to heal. I plan to be back in the ring next May, early June. It’s just a lot of pain.”

Report: Boxing Scene