NEW YORK (AP) Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson won for the second time as a pro when his fight against Carlos Suarez on Saturday was stopped in the first round.
Ray Beltran then scored a devastating and scary second-round knockout of Jonathan Maicelo, whose back of the head hit the canvas with a loud thud and was carried from the ring on a board.
Beltran (33-7-1, 21 Kos) had been knocked down in the first round after the fighters banged heads and appeared to be losing the second when he suddenly drilled Maicelo with a left hook that knocked him backward.
''I got him hard with a lead left hook,'' Beltran said. ''That's a punch I've knocked out a lot of people with and he walked right into it.''
Beltran, a native of Ahome, Mexico now living in Phoenix, became the IBF No. 1 contender in the lightweight division. As important to him, Beltran thinks it will help him in his quest to get his green card. He vowed this week that if he got it, he would walk straight to New York's Trump Tower so he could flash it at President Donald Trump's building.
''I should have no problem getting my green card now,'' he said.
Maicelo (25-3, 12 KOs) appeared to be OK as he was carried out, motioning his hand to a crowd that included many of the Peruvian's fans. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Stevenson was dominating the action when Suarez went down face-first on what appeared to be a slip after a left to the chin. Suarez was getting up but stumbled and fell backward as he rose and referee Arthur Mercante stopped the bout at 2:35 of the round.
Stevenson said he knew right away Suarez was hurt.
''That's my money punch,'' Stevenson said. ''I only wish the fight could have gone longer for the fans.''
The bout was on the undercard of the 140-pound title fight between undefeated champion Terence Crawford and Felix Diaz at Madison Square Garden.
The card was originally being planned for the Prudential Center in Stevenson's hometown of Newark, New Jersey. Wearing ''Newark'' on his trucks, he had plenty of support anyway.
Two other 2016 Olympians won on the undercard.
Fazliddin Gaibnazarov who won gold for Uzbekistan as a light welterweight, won for the second time in two professional fights with a unanimous decision victory over Augustine Mauras in an eight-round bout. Gaibnazarov won every round on all three scoreboards.
Teofimo Lopez, an American who boxed for the Honduras in Rio, improved to 5-0, all by knockout, by dropping Ronald Rivas with a left hook in the second round.
