Keith Thurman was roundly booed by an impatient crowd who sat through 12 rounds of little action against Leonard Bundu at the MGM Grand.
Thurman, despite a fast start in which he dropped Bundu in round one, couldn’t solve the problem in front of him with his usual power display and was booed most of the way home to a 120-107 win.
He said he wants Marcos Maidana next.
“Bundu was a smart fighter, he was tricky,” Thurman said. “He came not to get knocked out but he wasn’t able to win rounds. He was always switching it up and we were aiming to be more accurate in every round. He was a wise veteran and it was a great learning experience. This is the sport of boxing and I choose howI want to fight. We are going to get back to the gym after an eight-month lay-off. You can’t knock everybody out.”
Errol Spence sizzled against Javier Castro, hitting him with just about every shot in his arsenal before it was waved off in round five. Spence could be special.
Jermell Charlo won 10 laborious rounds against Mario Lozano but his twin brother, Jermall, positively sizzled wiping out Lenny Bottai with a left hook in the third of their fight.
Abner Mares won a five round war with gritty Jose Ramirez. Ramirez was extraordinarily game and was down in the third and fifth before being withdrawn at the end of that session.
Former WBA light-heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov had things his own way before stopping Bobby Thomas, who was heavily outgunned, in the fifth.
Manuel Perez started quickly against Victor Ortiz but ran out of gas and was beaten in the third round while Yoshihiro Kamegai was too big, strong and good for Oscar Godoy.