PBC on ESPN results: Keith Thurman stops Luis Collazo on cuts

Keith Thurman went to 2-0 this year in PBC main events, as he kicked off the series run in March with a win on NBC over Robert Guerrero, and followed up tonight with a solid victory in the ESPN premiere of the series, beating Luis Collazo via eighth round TKO. But the conclusion was a little more odd than that might make it sound.

Collazo essentially quit in the corner after round seven, and the official result is a TKO-8 at 0:01 for Thurman, who improves to 26-0 (22 KO). Collazo had a cut outside his right eye, which he told his corner made him unable to see. "I can't see," he said, and he was asked by the doctor if he wanted to continue or not. "That's up to y'all," Collazo replied. "I can't see."

The cut was ruled to be caused by an accidental headbutt. "I couldn't see, so, hey, better safe than sorry," Collazo told ESPN's Bernardo Osuna. When asked about a fifth round body shot that did have Thurman hurt and reeling a little bit, Collazo said, "I was trying to set him up for the left hand with him going to my left. He left it wide open, so I caught him with the liver shot."

The fight was stopped, and it was ruled as Collazo (36-7, 19 KO) retiring on his stool, though he never explicitly said he quit. Most fight fans know, however, that if a fighter tells a doctor, "I can't see," that's just asking for the fight to be stopped.

Collazo said Thurman is the real deal, but had some reservations. "He's a great fighter. Well, I'm not going to say great yet. He's got a ways to go. But he's definitely an undefeated welterweight champion." Collazo, 34, had no real complaints about the outcome of the fight.

Official scores at the end of seven rounds were 69-64, 69-64, 68-65, all for Thurman, so he would have won clearly had the fight gone to the cards instead of being ruled a TKO. BLH had it 68-65 for Thurman.

"He came and he fought hard, he caught me with a great body shot. I took it, I endured like a champion does," Thurman said, adding that he wasn't surprised by Collazo's game effort. "He's been a huge underdog his whole career. He's upset a lot of people and made a lot of world champions look bad."

Thurman also made sure to call out Floyd Mayweather, as he still wants that September date with "Money."

"I'm a young, strong champion, Floyd. Come get it! I'm undefeated like you, baby! Come take my 0! Come take my 0! We'll go right back to camp! You see my six pack!"