By Miguel Rivera
World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman has been forced to take action in light of the latest injury suffered by Keith Thurman.
Thurman, who holds the WBC, WBA welterweight titles, has been inactive since last March - when he won a twelve round split decision over Danny Garcia to unify the two world titles.
After that fight, Thurman underwent elbow surgery and took off for the rest of the year.
Thurman was scheduled to make a voluntary defense in a Showtime televised bout on May 19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York - but it's been revealed that he's unable to go forward due to a hand injury.
He has two mandatory challengers waiting for him - Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) and Shawn Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs).
Porter became the mandatory challenger last year, after stopped former champion Andre Berto.
And Garcia became the secondary mandatory back in February, after knocking out Brandon Rios in a final eliminator.
The only solution, says Sulaiman, is to order a fight between Garcia and Porter for the WBC's interim-world title at 147.
"Unfortunately [Thurman] has been injured again. He can not continue as a champion, he has not defended the title for more than a year, we had been consistent with him after the injury he had but with this new injury it is very possible that the fight is ordered for the interim title between Porter and García, who are the two mandatory challengers," Sulaiman said to ESPN Deportes.
Thurman said he had suffered an injury to his left hand and because of that he will not be able to train for at least six weeks, so he opted to cancel the fight he had scheduled for May 19, although he had no opponent ever scheduled in the fight and turned down offered bouts with Porter and Jessie Vargas.
2023-10-20 18:21:24
