Keith Thurman Beats Luis Collazo by TKO; Next Fight vs Floyd Mayweather?

As many forecasted, Keith Thurman retained his WBA Welterweight title after a TKO win over Luis Collazo in the Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN held at the USF Sun Dome.

Thurman was declared the winner when Collazo retired on his stool after the seventh round. It was the 26th career win for Thurman and the 22nd KO win for the yet-to-be-defeated American boxer who is slowly being branded as the “Next Great Welterweight Fighter”.

And as previous fighters who ended up as victors, Thurman called out Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a possible fight. Like Shawn Porter (who recently won over Adrien Broner), Thurman is hoping to toss in his name among the possible opponents Mayweather could face this coming September.

"I'm a young, strong champion, Floyd. Come get it," Thurman said via ESPN. "I'm undefeated like you, baby. Come take my 0 baby! Come take my 0! I'm ready. I'm ready."

For now, the leading names include Amir Khan, Andre Berto and Karim Mayfield. As of to date however, there is no name that stands out among those mentioned.

Despite retaining his clean slate, Thurman was far from overwhelming in the said bout.

In the fifth round, Collazo connected with a perfect left to the body which forced Thurman to distance himself.

For his part, Collazo knew he had the chance to follow up the body shot but unfortunately ran out of time.

"I was trying to set him up for the left hand with him going to my left, and he was wide open," Collazo said. "So I caught him with the liver shot. I think if I would have had a little more time, I probably could have [knocked him down]."

That was until the seventh round when Thurman was able to land a shot that opened a nasty cut at the top of Collazo’s right eye. And when the round ended, Collazo was asked if he could still continue.

"That's up to y'all. I can't see," he said.

It was at this point that referee Telis Assimenios stopped the fight with Thurman leading in the scorecards, 69-64, 69-64 and 68-65.

For winning the bout, Thurman went home $1.5 million richer while the veteran southpaw Collazo took in $500,000.

There is no word yet on who Thurman would be facing next though he is still hoping that Mayweather would consider him.

If not Mayweather, Amir Khan had mentioned before that he would be interested in facing Thurman. Like Thurman, Khan is also waiting in the wings on what Mayweather plans this coming September.

If both challengers get shunned, there is a big chance that a Kieth Thurman vs. Amir Khan showdown could happen.