By CompuBox

Argentine power-puncher Marcos Maidana reaffirmed his status in boxing’s deepest division with a sixth round body-shot stoppage of previously undefeated Dominican Victor Cayo Saturday night at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.

Aside from an after-the-bell knockdown in round two, Cayo kept Maidana’s power at bay with excellent hand speed and quirky body movements. Though Maidana landed more punches in three of the first five rounds, the margin was never more than four connects (22-18 for Maidana in round four) on either side.

The South American broke open the floodgates in the sixth as a concerted body attack slowed Cayo enough to set up a bodacious right-handed bomb to the solar plexus. Cayo collapsed instantly and remained down for the count. In the final round Maidana out-landed Cayo 24-2, including 10-0 in connected body shots, to open up a 129-101 bulge in overall connects.

According to PunchZone, Maidana’s attack was well balanced. Of his 87 head connects 29 were produced by lefts, 39 by rights and 19 targeted the chin while his 42 body connects were equally divided – 21 on the left side, 21 on the right side. Meanwhile Cayo’s offense was almost entirely to Maidana’s head (92 of 101). Of those, the left hand produced 28 hits, the right 14 connects and 50 struck the chin. The left hand netted Cayo eight of his nine body connects.

For the second time in two bouts controversy invaded a bout between Joan Guzman and Ali Funeka. Because Guzman weighed an astronomical nine pounds above the 135-pound limit only Funeka was qualified to win the vacant IBF lightweight belt that was at stake.

This was one of the rare fights when ring generalship ended up trumping raw numbers. As was the case in the first fight Funeka threw more (761-512), landed more (199-139), threw and landed more power shots (136 of 377, 36 percent for Funeka, 93 of 282, 33 percent for Guzman) and out-jabbed him 63-46. The margins, however, were smaller and because Guzman was able to operate at a comfortable weight he was able to apply his game plan throughout the contest as opposed to the first two rounds in fight number one.

The PunchZone statistics revealed that the taller Funeka’s attack was more head-centered than Guzman’s. Of Funeka’s 141 head connects, lefts produced 45 connects, right netted 53 and 43 more struck Guzman’s chin. Somewhat surprisingly considering Funeka’s right-handed stance, 43 of his 58 body connects were achieved with the right hand, which takes slightly longer to reach its target.

Guzman’s straight punches hit Funeka’s chin 43 times and he struck the sides of the head with equal effectiveness – 19 to the left side, 19 to the right side. That synchronicity also applied to his body connects as his left landed 29 times to 28 for his right.