Marcos Maidana keeps title with sixth-round knockout

Marcos Maidana could have thrown head shots all night.

For the first four rounds of his WBA interim super lightweight title fight against Victor Cayo at the Joint at the Hard Rock on Saturday night, Maidana focused on connecting his power punches with Cayo’s cranium.

No matter how many big shots Maidana landed, Cayo shook them off. Cayo’s resilience frustrated Maidana, who wanted to make quick work of the bout.

Then came the advice. A minute and 38 seconds into the fifth round, Maidana heard someone from his corner yell to go to the body.

“When I finally did that,” Maidana said through a translator, “he went down.”

And he stayed down. After a flurry of jabs to Cayo’s face, Maidana threw an uppercut that landed in Cayo’s chest and sent him to the ground for a knockout.

Maidana, an Argentina native, improved to 28-1 and held on to his championship belt.

“That was a very tough fight,” Maidana said. “But I felt like I was winning the whole time.”

Cayo, from the Dominican Republic, was no slouch. He came into the fight undefeated and showed no fear of standing with Maidana.

But Maidana was able to further establish himself as a force in his first appearance in Las Vegas in the main event of HBO’s Boxing After Dark.

In the co-main event, the Dominican Republic fared slightly better. The Dominican’s Joan Guzman won a split decision against South African Ali Funeka in a rematch of a November fight between the two that ended in a draw.

“This was a fight I basically fought for myself,” Guzman said through a translator. “I wanted to feel better about myself.”

One judge scored the fight 114-113 in favor of Funeka, but the other two scores were on Guzman's side at 114-113 and 116-111. Although the match was slated as an IBF lightweight title match, Guzman did not earn the belt with his win.

He became ineligible to be a champion after he weighed in at 144 pounds, nine pounds overweight, Friday and had to pay a $32,000 fine.

The difference in the fight came in the sixth round when Guzman knocked Funeka down. Although Guzman said the extra weight was no factor, Funeka adamantly disagreed.

“He had an advantage with the weight,” Funeka said. “He was like punching a bag full of sand. It was very hard.”

Guzman said he felt bad about not making weight but couldn’t help that his body was retaining too much water.

He will now move up to the super-lightweight 140-pound class, which is appropriately the division Maidana is currently reigning over.

“I want to get revenge for my Dominicans and fight Maidana,” Guzman said through a translator.

Maidana’s preferred next opponent would be English WBA champion Amir Khan.

If that can’t happen, Guzman would be a possibility. But Maidana had one stipulation.

“If he makes weight, we’d consider it,” Maidana said jokingly through a translator.