LAS VEGAS - Unbeaten IBF flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan stopped previously unbeaten Luis Maldonado in the eighth round Saturday night.
Darchinyan pummeled Maldonado with a series of left hands, prompting referee Joe Cortez to stop the fight with 1:38 left in the round.
Darchinyan improved to 26-0 with his 22nd knockout.
Darchinyan floored Maldonado (33-1-1) with a left to the head in the seventh, and opened a cut near the challenger's left eye in the fourth round.
"I started using my left hand more in the sixth," Darchinyan said. "I didn't want to rush, but I knew I could knock him out."
Cortez stopped the fight with 1:38 left in the round.
