By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Keith Thurman and Errol Spence Jr. stood about five feet apart Wednesday when Thurman was introduced on the stage as part of Showtime’s “2018 Boxing Upfront” event at a Manhattan restaurant.

It’s about as close as we might come to the undefeated welterweight champions squaring off for quite some time.

Thurman reiterated following the event that he has no intention of fighting Spence later this year. Spence repeatedly has said Thurman is the opponent he wants to fight most.

Thurman’s comeback from elbow surgery was announced as part of Showtime’s lineup through June 16. He’ll face an undetermined opponent May 19 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and expects to fight once more in 2018.

That fight, likely to take place in the fall, won’t come against Spence.

“You’re not gonna see it [in] ’18, baby,” Thurman said. “This is a get-back year. This is a get-back year. You’re not gonna be able to see it.”

Spence (23-0, 20 KOs), who stopped Lamont Peterson (35-4-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at Barclays Center to defend his IBF welterweight title for the first time, will fight again June 16 at an undetermined venue in Dallas. The DeSoto, Texas, native could make a mandatory defense of his title against Mexico’s Carlos Ocampo (22-0, 13 KOs) that night.

The 28-year-old Spence wants to fight a third time later this year, preferably against Thurman, but he’ll have to wait longer for that fight.

“I believe Errol Spence is a great champion, but he can defend the title that he just acquired, he can defend that another time this year,” Thurman said. “I’m gonna defend [the WBA and WBC titles] this year. After that, I can expand – because I just became the unified champion, correct? I just became unified. He just became champion, with his first title defense. I’ve yet to defend my unification. And I’m gonna be defending it after the injury. So this is all the get-back year. I hope later this year we can do an exciting fight for you. But it will not be EJ. EJ is to come in the near future, but not that soon.”

The 29-year-old Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC) indicated that, assuming he wins what will amount to a tune-up fight May 19, he could pursue a rematch against either Shawn Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) or Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) in his second fight of this year. The Clearwater, Florida, native has been recovering from elbow surgery performed nine months ago and hasn’t fought since defeating Garcia by split decision in their welterweight title unification fight March 4 at Barclays Center.

“So in 2018, we’re coming back, we’re holding our position,” Thurman said. “We can possibly have a big fight – arguably the Shawn Porter rematch, arguably there’s enough drama to do a Danny Garcia rematch. I don’t know what’s gonna happen later this year. I know I’m gonna be fighting May 19th.

“I know I’m gonna be getting back into action. I want something big to happen later, but Errol Spence and expanding outside of this unification and into another unification just is not gonna happen this year. I know that. The fans might not understand that, but that’s just the way it is.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.