By Francisco Salazar

Another fight, another knockout victory for Kerman Lejarraga.

The hard-hitting welterweight contender stopped late-sub Johnny Navarrete in round six Saturday night at the Palacio de Congresos in Marbella, Spain.

The 26-year-old Lejarraga slowly broke Navarrete down in each round. Navarrete battled and gave a good account of himself, but looked like he was in survival mode by round four.

Lejarraga closed the distance between the two, connecting with hooks and crosses to the head and body of Navarrete, who would back up against the ropes or in a corner.

Midway through round six, Lejarraga dropped Navarrete with a right cross to the body. Navarrete got up, but was hit with the same punch in almost the same location, dropping again to one knee. Navarrete beat the count, but the fight was waved over at the count of eight.

Lejarraga (26-0, 21 knockouts), who resides in northern Spanish city of Bilbao, has won 11 of his last 12 bouts by knockout.

Lejarraga is ranked number seven by the WBC and the IBF, and number 10 by the WBO. He is co-promoted by Mgz Promotions and Lou DiBella.

Navarrete (31-14-2, 13 KOs), who hails from San Juan Zitlaltepec, Mexico, took the fight on less than a week's notice, replacing Michele Di Rocco of Italy. He is winless in his last seven bouts, two of those coming at the hands of current WBO junior middleweight titleholder Jaime Munguia.

Fringe junior middleweight contender Navid Mansouri won a six round unanimous decision over Mamadou Goita (5-10-2) to improve to 18-1-2, 5 KOs.

Bantamweight Ryan Farrag (19-3, 5 KOs) stopped Jefferson Vargas (5-10) in round five. He has now won four of his last five bouts.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing