Welterweight Fabian Maidana returned to action this past Friday night, stopping Carlos Daniel Aquino in the third round at Club Sarmiento in Resistencia, Argentina.

Maidana, who resides in Buenos Aires, improves to 19-2, 14 knockouts.

From the opening bell, Maidana was the aggressor, walking down Aquino and forcing him to fight off his back foot. Maidana landed several lead and counter right hands that shook Aquino.

It was during the third round that a straight right hand dropped Aquino against the ropes. Aquino beat the count, but referee Leonardo Franco waved the fight off, likely citing Aquino was taking too much punishment. 

The win over Aquino was Maidana’s first fight since losing to Francisco Mercado Delgadillo by technical decision on December 17 of last year. 

The 30-year-old was scheduled to fight then-WBA world welterweight titleholder Yordenis Ugas on August 21 of last year, but had to withdraw from the fight due to suffering an injury to his eye during a training session. Ironically, within a day of Maidana withdrawing from the fight, Errol Spence, who was scheduled to fight Manny Pacquiao on the same card, had to himself withdraw from the Pacquiao fight due to a retinal tear in his last eye.

Ugas ended up facing Pacquiao, defeating the popular Filipino fighter by unanimous decision. 

Maidana, who is the younger brother of Marcos Maidana, is promoted by Gerogina Rivero.

Aquino, who resides in Parana, Argentina, falls to 19-14-2, 14 KOs. He has now lost eight out of his last 10 fights. 

In the main event, Debora Anahi Dionicius won the WBO Female interim world junior featherweight title by defeating 46-year-old Marcela Acuna by unanimous decision.

Scores were 97-93, 97-93, and 96-94 for Dionicius, who improves to 35-4, 6 KOs. 

Dionicius, who is also promoted by Rivero, defeated Acuna (51-9-2, 20 KOs) by unanimous decision on November 20 of last year.

Junior lightweight Joaquin Diaz of Rosario, Argentina improved to 5-0, 4 KOs, defeating journeyman Roberto Rojas (6-13-3, 1 KO) by unanimous decision. Scores were 60-54, 60-54, and 59-55 for Diaz. 

TyC Sports aired the card that was promoted by Osvaldo Rivero. 

Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing