Los Angeles - Bektemir “Bek Bully” Melikuziev might not be as reckless as he once was in the ring, but the Uzbek native showed Saturday night that his eye-catching punching power remains the same.

Melikuziev stopped Peruvian David Zegarra with a hellacious body shot in the second round of their scheduled 10-round light heavyweight bout on the undercard of the Alexis Rocha-Blair Cobb at the USC Galen Center in Los Angeles.

It was the second win in a row for Melikuziev, who trains out of nearby Indio, since his upset loss to Gabe Rosado in their 168-pound bout last June. In that fight, Melikuziev lunged forward but got clipped with a counter right hand by the veteran Philadelphian.

Coincidentally, Melikuziev’s finishing blow against Zegarra mirrored the knockout loss to Rosado.

Barely 20 seconds into the second round, Zegarra stepped forward, trying to unleash an overhand right, but the 25-year-old Melikuziev slipped and countered to the body with a cracking left hand. Zegarra immediately took a knee and was unable to get up, forcing referee Gerard White to call a halt to the bout 30 seconds into the round.

Melikuziev improves to 9-1 with 7 knockouts. Zegarra falls to 34-8, with 21 KOs>

In the opening round, the fighters started off engaging each other with jabs and feints, eliciting boos from the crowd. Melikuziev, who clearly looked more cautious than in recent memory, dug a left to the body, the best punch of an otherwise uneventful round.

In the preceding fight, Evan Sanchez tried his mightiest to score a knockout, but the well-regarded prospect had to settle for a decision.

Sanchez, Parlier, California, outworked a game Alejandro Munera over six rounds of their junior middleweight bout.

All three judges turned in scorecards of 60-53 for the southpaw Sanchez.

Sanchez improves to 11-0 with 6 knockouts; Munera falls to 6-4-4 with 5 KOs.

Sanchez had his way mostly with Munera, a former MMA fighter from Colombia, landing the harder, clean punches all night. But Munera took the shots well and, from time to time, got in a few counters, though they hardly troubled Sanchez.

In the first round, Sanchez connected on a three-punch combination punctuated with a right to the body.

With a minute to go, the two flinging hard punches on the inside, with Sanchez getting the better of the exchanges. Sanchez ended the round by connecting with the right hook followed by a clean one-two.

In the second round, the two continued to wing hard punches on the inside. Sanchez landed a thudding left hand to the body. Sanchez then rifled off a combination that had the partisan crowd roaring in his favor. Munera took it well, however. The fight ended with yet another heated exchange. This time Munera got in a right hand.

In the third round, Sanchez started off with a searing right hook that momentarily buckled Munera. The tough Columbian, however, continued to punch back, getting in a nicely-timed uppercut at one point. Sanchez tried to finish the fight by throwing a slew of hard body shots, but Munera would stave off the onslaught.

Midway through the fourth round, Sanchez, who had a small welt underneath his right eye, dropped Munera with a wide right hook. Munera, however, took the shot well and still had his legs underneath him. Sanchez followed up with several clean left hands to end the round.

Sanchez began fighting off his backfoot in the fifth round, landing clean left leads as Munera marched forward artlessly. Munera managed to corner Sanchez to end the round but was largely ineffective with his punches.

In the sixth and final round, Sanchez began walking Munera down, loading up with punches to the body. Munera was visibly hurt by the punches but stood his ground. Munera countered successfully in one exchange, but a determined Sanchez continued to fling hard hooks to the body.