By Steve Kim

WBC/WBA welterweight titlist Keith Thurman (22-0, 22 KOs) has not fought since defeating Danny Garcia last March at the Barclay Center but has been idle for over a year now.

After the win over Garcia, Thurman underwent elbow surgery and then elected to take some time off after getting married.

His scheduled return on Showtime, set for May 19th at the Barclay Center, was scrapped as he suffered a reported hand injury - which Thurman stated that his doctor told him that he's unable to use the hand in camp for at least six weeks.

Shawn Porter, who lost a closely contested bout to Thurman in June of 2016, was hoping to rematch him at some point this year and made it clear that he was more than willing to wait around for him.

Porter became the mandatory challenger last year after knocking out Andre Berto.

So what are his thoughts on this latest development?

"I try to give everybody the benefit of the doubt but that generosity is wearing off. It's just interesting to see someone of his status doing the things that he's doing, not fighting, coming up with X-amount of injuries, X-amount of time to prepare for another fight and even on top of that not even preparing to fight someone you should be fighting," Porter said to BoxingScene.com on Wednesday night.

Thurman made it clear that he wasn't going to face a particularly tough fighter in his return to the ring.

Porter (28-2-1, 17 KO's), who defeated Adrian Granados via 12-round decision in November, opined:

"He hasn't had a fight because he can't find anybody that is easy enough for him and I think that's more of the reason why he's not fighting than the fact that he's had multiple injuries now."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com