By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated welterweight/junior middleweight Keith Thurman (19-0, 18 KO’s) looked like a one-man wrecking crew last night in destroying former WBO welterweight champion Carlos Quintana (29-4, 23 KO’s) by a 4th round TKO at Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA.

Thurman showed in this fight that he’ll be a problem for anyone at welterweight, and he’d also be more than a handful at 154 because of his power. Thurman is going to have to fight in both divisions unfortunately in order to get the best fights, because he’s probably not going to get a lot interest from the top fighters in mixing it up with him.

Most likely Thurman will have to fight his way to a number 1 ranking and become a mandatory challenger before one of the champions will agree to fight him. They’re not just going to select him for a fight because he’s too dangerous. I’d pick Thurman over guys like Robert Guerrero, Timothy Bradley, James Kirkland, Erislandy Lara, Vanes Martirosyan, Devon Alexander, and Amir Khan in a second. He beats those guys.

Thurman’s problems may happen if he fights Saul Alvarez. I think Alvarez is too sound defensively and powerful enough to beat Thurman right now if they were to fight. But you never know. Thurman might be able to bludgeon Alvarez into submission the same way he did with Quintana.

Thurman, who just turned 24, was too strong for Quintana and had him down quickly in the 1st round from a nice left to the body. Quintana looked like he never recovered from the knockdown mentally, because he didn’t want any part of Thurman after that. Quintana did a lot of clinching, moving and very little on offense.

It wasn’t until the 4th when Thurman was able to force Quintana to fight him and he quickly melted under the heavy blows from Thurman. Quintana was hurt with a left and then was put out of his misery by a flurry of huge shots from Thurman. The referee didn’t want to let Thurman hurt Quintana, so he did the smart thing and stopped the fight with Quintana still on his feet.