NEWARK, New Jersey – Shakur Stevenson wanted to emphatically finish Shuichiro Yoshino on Saturday night.

Stevenson expressed some disappointment following his sixth-round, technical-knockout win because referee Allen Huggins halted their 12-round lightweight bout when Yoshino was still standing at Prudential Center. A faster, sharper Stevenson (20-0, 10 KOs) landed a right-left combination just before Huggins decided Yoshino had taken enough punishment during a fight in which Newark’s Stevenson sent him to the canvas once apiece in the second and fourth rounds.

Yoshino shook his head in disbelief and members of his team protested the unusual nature of Huggins’ stoppage at 1:35 of the sixth round.

Huggins had informed Yoshino (16-1, 12 KOs) before the start of the sixth round, though, that he would stop their WBC lightweight elimination match if Yoshino didn’t show him “something.” A physician examined Yoshino after the fifth round, but he was allowed to leave his corner for the sixth round.

“I thought he shoulda let it keep going,” Stevenson told a small group of reporters when asked about Huggins’ peculiar stoppage. “Because if they would let it keep going, I was gonna be able to sit him down for real. I wanted to put him down. I wanted to finish him, let it be known that I could really punch.”

The 25-year-old Stevenson took offense to Yoshino questioning his power prior to their fight.

Intent to prove he is more of a puncher than people think, Stevenson knocked Yoshino to the canvas with a short, straight left hand with 1:17 remaining in the second round. A surprised Yoshino quickly reached his feet after that first knockdown and wasn’t hurt badly enough for Stevenson to finish him.

Yoshino took more time to get off his knees when Stevenson’s left-right combination dropped him again with 36 seconds to go in the fourth round. Stevenson sensed even a demoralized Yoshino would’ve kept trying, unless he would’ve knocked the Tokyo-based contender cold.

“He was gonna keep getting up as much as possible, unless I put him to sleep,” Stevenson said. “He a tough dude. I could tell he a real tough dude. And I appreciate him for taking the fight. A lotta people ain’t take the fight. Everybody was scared, so he took the fight and he got what he came for.”

Stevenson’s previous two fights – unanimous-decision defeats of Oscar Valdez and Robson Conceicao – went all 12 rounds. Despite dominating and stopping Yoshino, Stevenson doesn’t consider this the most impressive victory of his six-year professional career.

“I think I even been sharper, but I was very focused,” Stevenson said. “I was focused on doing what I was supposed to do and sticking with what the game plan was.”

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