Keith Thurman stopped Jesus Soto Karass at 2:21 of the ninth round in a scheduled 12-round welterweight bout on the Adrien Broner-Marcos Maidana card Saturday in San Antonio.

Thurman gave a tremendous performance, outboxing the much slower Soto Karass but also hurting the Mexican on many occasions.

Soto Karass went down from a left uppercut in the fifth round and then again in the ninth, when five punches in succession hurt him badly and referee Jon Schorle caught him as he slumped to the canvas, after which he stopped the fight.

Soto Karass (28-9-3, 18 knockouts) hurt Thurman with a hard right early in the fight and never stopped pressuring the winner, landing many hard body shots in the process. However, he didn’t have the speed or skills to cope with an all-around talent like Thurman.

Thurman (22-0, 20 KOs) had a wide lead on all cards when the fight was stopped, 80-71, 79-72 and 78-83.

Thurman landed 260 of 586 punches, compared to 148 of 688 for Soto Karass, according to Showtime statistics. Thurman landed 135 of 253 power shots, a strong 53 percent.

A full report will follow shortly.

Photo by Ronald Martinez-Getty Images