By Ryan Maquiρana

In a battle of Northern California natives, lightweight prospect Stan "The Man" Martyniouk returned to the win column after a 19-month layoff with a fourth-round stoppage of a game Dario Castillo at Sacramento's Woodlake Hotel Thursday night.

"I was very anxious because I hadn't been back in a long time and I was fighting near home in a main event," Martyniouk (11-1, 2 KOs) told BoxingScene.com/Norcalboxing.net. "It took a couple rounds but I was able to break him down and get the stoppage."

Martyniouk, from nearby Antelope, peppered his rugged foe with body work and left hooks, eventually opening up a cut over the right eye of Castillo (6-11), who was fighting out of Pittsburg.  By the end of the fourth, Castillo was ruled unable to continue amid his team's protests.

"I thought them stopping it was a little premature," said Karl Sharrock, who was in Castillo's corner.  "Dario was giving Stan a good run and we stopped the cut from flowing, but it is what it is.  Either way, congratulations to Stan on the win."

With 2011 BWAA Trainer of the Year Virgil Hunter now in his corner, Martyniouk hopes to use this win as a springboard for a career rebirth following his only defeat, a unanimous decision to Khadaphi Proctor in November 2010.

"Virgil kept me calm in there and gave me some good instructions," Martyniouk added.  "He pushed me hard in training and it showed.  It felt good to shake off my ring rust. Now that I'm back, Virgil's also co-managing me; he told me to be ready for my next one on August 25th."

Here are the rest of the results, courtesy of the Sacramento Bee's Jim Jenkins:

• Super middleweight Mike Guy (4-0-1, 3 KOs) of Sacramento, Calif., edged debuting Ruben Mendoza (0-1) of Tulare, Calif., in a four-round split decision.

• Heavyweight Rodney Hernandez (2-1, 1 KO) of Modesto, Calif., outpointed Las Vegas, Nev., resident Kourtney Boden (3-5, 2 KOs) in a four-round majority decision.

• Junior welterweight Max Becerra (6-0-1, 3 KOs) of Vacaville, Calif., stopped Danny Castillo (2-7-1, 1 KO) of Pittsburg, Calif., in the second round.

• Junior featherweight John Abella (1-0) of Sacramento, Calif., made his pro debut a successful one in a four-round unanimous decision over Johnny Mancilla (1-1-2) of Reno, Nev.

The card was promoted by Nasser Niavaroni's Uppercut Promotions.

Norcalboxing.net's Ryan Maquiρana is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com , check out his weekly column for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, his archive for BoxingScene.com, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.