By Keith Idec

Ray Beltran was a lot better Saturday night than he was the last time he fought in Omaha.

It helped, of course, that he wasn’t fighting Terence Crawford. But Beltran beat Mason Menard by seventh-round knockout to score an impressive victory the 35-year-old lightweight contender desperately needed.

Phoenix’s Beltran (32-7-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) dropped Menard (32-2, 24 KOs), of Rayne, Louisiana, with a counter left hook early in the seventh round. Menard managed to get to his feet, but referee Mark Nelson stopped the fight at 51 seconds of the seventh round.

“I want to fight anyone with a title belt,” Beltran said, “and if [Vasyl] Lomachenko wants to come to this division, let’s do it. This fight was to prove I could still fight on a HBO level and win the big fights. This is one of my greatest wins.”

HBO televised the fight from CenturyLink Center before Crawford fought John Molina Jr. in its “World Championship Boxing” main event.

Beltran clearly was a step up in class for Menard, who turned pro in October 2007. The rugged Mexican turned out to be too experienced, too durable and too strong for Menard.

Menard nevered stopped trying, but Beltran kept the fight at a close distance that enabled him to hammer Menard’s body. Beltran controlled most of the action during the first half of the fight, but he suffered a cut over his left eye in the fifth round that made him pick up the pace.

Menard’s trainer, Chad Broussard, repeatedly asked him between the fifth and sixth rounds if he was “all right” and if he wanted to continue. He kept trying once the sixth round started, but Beltran continued to wear him down until Menard landed a hard low blow Nelson missed.

Beltran turned his back to Menard in an attempt to recover, yet Nelson never called for a break in the action. Soon thereafter, Beltran recovered and by the end of the round was landing hard body and head shots of his own.

With about 40 seconds to go in the seventh round, Beltran drilled Menard with a clean counter left hook to the jaw that left Menard flat on his back. Menard seemingly got up before Nelson’s count reached 10, but Nelson stopped the fight because Menard was badly hurt.

“I never got any rhythm going or got wired in,” Menard said. “I never saw the punch. Beltran got me good with that left hook.”

Beltran was supposed to fight former lightweight champion Juan Diaz. Menard replaced Diaz (42-4, 21 KOs) less than three weeks before the bout because Diaz’s neck and back injuries prevented him from training.

Menard already was training for a fight later this month, so he didn’t hesitate to box Beltran. The 28-year-old Menard knocked out Uzbekistan’s Bahodir Mamadjonov (19-3, 11 KOs) in the ninth round of his last fight, August 19 in Rochester, New York, to win the NABO lightweight title.

Beltran won that title and the vacant NABF 135-pound championship.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.