Oscar De La Hoya successfully defended his World Boxing Council welterweight title on Saturday, halting fellow American Oba Carr 55 seconds into the 11th round to improve his record to a perfect 31-0.
The victory cleared the way for a lucrative title unification bout between De La Hoya and International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Felix Trinidad in September.
De La Hoya dropped Carr in the first round but the challenger surprised the crowd by hanging in and giving the champion a fight that lasted into the 11th.
In the 11th, De La Hoya dropped Carr again with a left to the head. Carr got back to his feet but appeared dazed and referee Richard Steele signalled an end to the bout.
Promoter Bob Arum said afterward that De La Hoya had injured his left hand during the second round and the champion skipped his post match news conference, instead heading to a local hospital for X-rays on the hand as well as stitches to a cut under his left eye.
Arum said the injury may only be a sprain and hopefully will not take much time to heal.
Arum added that De La Hoya had said he could throw the left hook despite the injury, but felt discomfort when jabbing. Still it was the left that finished off Carr.
De La Hoya used two left uppercuts to the head to knock Carr down in the first round. I pressed the fight in the first round, he said.
After the second however, De La Hoya's attack was one-dimensional. He seldom jabbed because of the injury. Instead, he was waiting for a chance at a one-punch knockout.
And while De La Hoya eventually unleashed the blow he was looking for, the bout was closer than anticipated.
De La Hoya was ahead by scores of 95-92, 96-91 and 97-90 on the three judges' scorecards through 10 rounds. But Carr had two points deducted from his score in the seventh round, one for an accidental head butt that opened the cut under De La Hoya's eye and the other for a low blow.
Carr, whose record dropped to 48-3-1, landed only 11 percent of his jabs and 21 percent of all his punches.
On the undercard, Floyd Mayweather Jr improved to a perfect 21-0 and retained his WBC super featherweight title by knocking out last-minute replacement challenger Justin Juuko of Ghana after one minute 20 seconds of the ninth round.
Meanwhile, Scot Keith Knox believes justice was finally served when he lifted the British and Commonwealth Flyweight titles on Saturday night.
Beaten controversially for the British title by Micky Cantwell in 1996, the 31-year-old Knox faced Damaen Kelly as a huge underdog, but forced the Belfast man to retire on his stool at the end of the sixth. The decisive damage came at the end of the sixth. It followed a clash of heads, which left Kelly with a gash right down to the bone over his left eye, having suffered a cut right eye, damage to his ear and hairline.
