Keith Thurman vs Tim Tszyu might be off for March 30.
An injury to Keith Thurman may cancel or at least postpone his scheduled March 30 fight with Tim Tszyu, according to Tha Boxing Voice, a report backed later by Dan Rafael.
The injury is reportedly to Thurman’s biceps, and he’s awaiting MRI results.
This, of course, does not mean it’s off just yet, but we’re talking about a fight that’s less than two weeks away. It’s also a fight meant to headline Premier Boxing Champions’ first pay-per-view of their association with Amazon’s Prime Video — and the company’s first show since last December, period.
The 35-year-old Thurman (30-1, 22 KO) has fought just once this decade, a win two years ago over Mario Barrios. His last fight before that was a loss to Manny Pacquiao in the summer of 2019, and he’s had just three fights total in the last seven years.
It would also be really hard for PBC and Prime to sell any reasonable replacement opponent for Tszyu (24-0, 17 KO), who was already seen and marketed as the fight’s B-side.
They do have the potential to put either Sebastian Fundora or Serhii Bohachuk, who are scheduled to fight for the vacant WBC 154 lb title on the undercard, into the main event. Thurman vs Tszyu was supposed to be a 155 lb catchweight bout, but Tszyu does still hold the WBC super welterweight title, and if he agreed to a one-lb drop for the weigh-in, you could do a title fight.
Erickson Lubin (26-2, 18 KO) is also a PBC fighter, and if in shape could be a late call, too. 12 days isn’t much time, but a fight with Tszyu could be too good for the 28-year-old Lubin to pass up, though asking Tszyu to accept a naturally bigger southpaw after preparing for an undersized, orthodox Thurman might be a tough sell, too.
