By Keith Idec

LOS ANGELES – Luis Ortiz obliterated Razvan Cojanu on Saturday night.

In his first fight since Deontay Wilder stopped him in their heavyweight championship match, the Cuban contender knocked out Romania’s Cojanu in the second round at Staples Center. Ortiz drilled the 6-feet-7½, 269-pound Cojanu with a straight left to the middle of his face, which dropped his huge opponent with just over a minute to go in the second round.

Cojanu tried to get up, but fell face-first, through the two bottom ropes. He attempted to reach his feet a second time, only to stumble and fall again.

That’s when referee Jerry Cantu stopped their scheduled 10-round fight on the Mikey Garcia-Robert Easter Jr. undercard at Staples Center.

The 39-year-old Ortiz (29-1, 25 KOs, 2 NC) bounced back from his first loss in emphatic fashion. The 31-year-old Cojanu (16-4, 9 KOs) lost by knockout for the second time as a pro.

Ortiz fought for the first time since Wilder knocked out the strong southpaw in the 10th round of their title match March 3 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Ortiz hurt Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) badly during the seventh round of that back-and-forth fight, but Wilder recovered, dropped him twice in the 10th round and stopped him.

Against this 6-feet-7 opponent, Ortiz set up the devastating shot that ended the fight with a right hook that opened up Cojanu for that punishing punch.

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