By Jake Donovan

Barely a day after their bout was downgraded from "regular" to "interim" title status, Yunier Dorticos and Youri Kalenga upgraded their game to deliver a leading candidate for 2016 Fight of the Year.

A Herculean effort was put forth by the pair of cruiserweights, which ended with Dorticos scoring a 10th round stoppage to claim an interim title Friday evening at Palais des Sports in Paris, France. 

Dorticos was stepping up in class and fighting outside of the United States for the first time in his seven-year career. The thought of fighting on the road or for his world title didn't at all seem to faze the Miami-based Cuban slugger, who fought with knockout intentions from the opening bell.

Kalenga was fully confident of his level of opposition and experience coupled with his granite chin getting him through the night, especially fighting in his adopted homeland. The Congo-born, France-based contender has frequently updated his passport in his time near the top of the cruiserweight division, a standing of which he looked to remind his opponent in the early rounds.

It worked until he was forced to learn the hard way that Dorticos came to fight. A vicious uppercut put Kalenga on the deck in round two, giving the visiting boxer all the confidence he needed to realize he had a shot at leaving France a champion. 

The unbeaten Cuban had to walk through hell to get to that point, though. Kalenga found himself in a deep hope through three rounds before bravely working his way back into the fight. What threatened to become a rout instead turned into a nailbiter, with Kalenga racking up points in the middle rounds.

An interesting development - if the bout had any chance of going to the scorecards - came when Doriticos was docked one point for hitting after the bell to close round eight. Kalenga followed up the momentum with a convincing performance in round nine, leaving the fight very much in the balance as the action threatened to creep into the championship rounds,

Dorticos wouldn't allow that to happen.

Kalenga went all in through nine, but found himself in severe trouble in round ten. Dorticos managed to bloody the nose of the former titlist and had him all but out on his feet. Any threat of one final rally from the battered local favorite was put to an end when Dorticos connected with a right hand shot along the ropes against his defenseless foe, forcing the referee to stop the fight. 

Dorticos (21-0, 20KOs) picks up his first major belt, coming at a time when the cruiserweight division is overrun with big fights to be made. It would have been for an upgraded version of the World Boxing Association (WBA) cruiserweight belt, but the fight was abruptly downgraded to "interim" status upon the late-decided ring return of Beibut Shumenov, who fights Saturday evening in Las Vegas for the first time since collecting a belt last summer. 

Nevertheless, the status of the belt he won does nothing to diminish the Fight of the Year candidate that was produced. The feat comes on the heels of another cruiserweight slugfest one week ago, when Mairis Briedis punched his way into contention with a 9th round knockout of Olanrewaju Durudola in his hometown of Riga, Latvia.

Kalenga could very well still figure into the mix, although rest and relaxation needs to be in his immediate future. The loss is the second in his past three starts in falling to 22-3 (15KOs), coming 13 months after a competitive defeat at the hands of Denis Lebedev, the WBA "Super" champ who faces International Boxing Federation (IBF) titlist Victor Ramirez in a cruiserweight title unification bout Saturday evening in Moscow, Russia.

The bout aired live on Canal+ Sport, the network's first live boxing telecast in eight years. It was a hell of a way to get back into the sport, as well as the latest reminder of how criminally underappreciated the cruiserweight division remains.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2