Keith Thurman showed off his boxing skills on Saturday night, defeating Leonard Bundu by a shutout decision in a 12-round welterweight fight on the Amir Khan-Devon Alexander card in Las Vegas.

Thurman (24-0, 21 knockouts) is known more as a puncher than a boxer but demonstrated against Bundu (31-1-2, 11 KOs) that he can patiently and carefully pick apart a solid opponent from the outside, albeit a relatively inactive opponent. Bundu threw punches only when he got close to Thurman, which didn’t happen frequently.

Thurman put Bundu down with a counter left in the first round but didn’t land as many big shots as he normally does. And the ones that found their target didn’t do much damage as they typically do because of the 40-year-old Italian’s obvious durability.

All three judges had the same score: 120-107, meaning Thurman won every round on all three cards.

Thurman hadn’t fought since he stopped Julio Diaz in three rounds in April.

“I felt good in there but I’m a little rusty from the eight-month layoff,” he said. “I decided to keep boxing and not go for a knock out. I wanted to get a 12-round experience and because I was rusty. That was the best thing to do. He was a smart fighter, tricky, an Olympian, he came in not to get knocked out.

“You never knew what he was going to give yo, becuase he kept switching it up. He was a wise veteran. I need to go home and work on being able to make a knock out happen; that is what I learned from this fight. He was a tough fighter and you can’t knock everyone out.”