Charles Martin was a punch or two away in his last fight from headlining Sunday’s show.

Instead, the former IBF heavyweight titlist was reduced to appearing well off-TV but making the most of the opportunity in a fourth-round stoppage of Toledo’s Devin Vargas. An accumulation of punishment forced referee Jerry Cantu to halt the contest at 1:59 of round four in their heavyweight preliminary bout Sunday evening at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The fight was the first for Martin since suffering a knockout loss to Luis Ortiz, who appears in the Pay-Per-View headliner (Sunday, 9:00 p.m. ET, Fox Sports PPV/Fite TV/PPV.com, $74.99) against former unified titlist Andy Ruiz (34-2, 22KOs) in a 12-round WBC semifinal eliminator.

Martin was poised to land the assignment, having twice floored Ortiz and was ahead on all three scorecards before suffering two knockdowns en route to a sixth-round stoppage on January 1 in Hollywood, Florida. It was a bitter setback for the 36-year-old southpaw, who’d won three straight heading into the bout and was potentially back on his way to title contention.

It’s back to the drawing board for Martin, who at least returns to the win column following his one-sided affair over Vargas (22-8, 9KOs). The bout—which aired on the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox YouTube channel—was one-sided on paper and played out as much in the ring. Vargas was game as always but ultimately forced to play the familiar role of opponent, struggling to fend off Martin while also contending with a cut over his right eye.

Martin applied pressure along the ropes, leaving Vargas no longer able to defend himself. As much was detected by the referee, who jumped in to rescue the 40-year-old journeyman from absorbing additional punishment.

The win is the first for Martin (29-3-1, 26KOs) since a sixth-round stoppage of Gerald Washington in February 2020 just prior to the pandemic. The Carson, California-based heavyweight is 6-3 (5KOs) since capturing the IBF heavyweight title in a third-round injury stoppage of Vyacheslav Glazkov in January 2016. The reign was short-lived, suffering a second-round knockout defeat against Anthony Joshua just three months later.

Also on the YouTube portion of the show, Anthony Garnica preserved his unbeaten record following a six-round, majority decision win over Juan Antonio Lopez.

Judges Sergio Caiz (59-55) and David Sullivan (59-55) scored the contest in favor of Oakland’s Garnica (10-0-1, 5KOs), overruling judge Pam Hayashida (57-57) who scored the entertaining featherweight bout even. Garnica—a stablemate of Andy Ruiz, who also guides his career—dug deep in the final rounds, catching Lopez (17-11, 7KOs) with several clean right hands to fend off a scrappy challenge from the Dallas native and earn the hard-fought win.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox