Thurman has elbow surgery, out til end of year

Unified WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith Thurman is recovering from surgery on his right elbow and expects to be out of action until the end of 2017. Thurman, who held the WBA 147-pound title, defeated WBC 147-pound champion Danny Garcia at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on March 4 to become the unified 147-pound champion. Thurman fought through severe pain in his right elbow to secure the 12-round unanimous decision victory.

A few weeks later, he traveled back to New York to have surgery to remove calcium deposits in his right elbow. The surgery was performed by Dr. Riley Williams at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan on April 19. The surgery was successful and Thurman is currently undergoing rehabilitation on his arm. The doctors have told him he will need six months to recover.

“I had loose bodies in the elbow, similar to what baseball pitchers have. They had to go in and take out the loose bodies and calcium deposits,” Thurman said. “It was getting in the way of the hinging of the elbow and when I threw a punch. It was causing pain and inflammation. I noticed it before the Danny Garcia fight. There was no way to get rid of it without the surgery. I’m healing and getting the function back so that I can be pain free.”