By Jason Kim: Six months after being on the receiving end of a very controversial loss to Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez got back on the winning track against veteran Joel Casamayor (36-4-1, 22 KOs), defeating him by a 11th round TKO on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Marquez, 35, who was moving up from the super featherweight division to take on Casamayor, dropped him twice in the 11th round. After the second knockdown, referee Tony Weeks stepped in and stopped the fight at 2:55 as Casamayor laid bleeding from his both his right eye and nose on the canvas. The fight was very close at the time of the stoppage, however, and I had the fight Casamayor slightly ahead at the time the fight was stopped. Marquez fought well in the first half of the fight, doing particularly well in rounds two, five, six, and ten, but the rest of the rounds appeared to have won by the taller, slicker counter punching Casamayor.

Indeed, at the time of the stoppage Casamayor had been fighting well and appeared to be possibly heading to a victory. After appearing to lose rounds seven through nine, Marquez rallied in the 10th round, landing several big right hands that clearly bothered Casamayor. Although the Cuban fighter shook his head as if to indicate the punches didn’t bother him, it looked to have done just that. Casamayor was bothered by a large cut over his right eye and a bloody nose, both of which appeared to occur at the same time in round five.

The blood from the cut over his eye often dripped down into his eye, taking away the vision for Casamayor. While at the same time, his bloody nose was also a problem for him, as it bled continuously from round five until the stoppage in the 11th round. Still, despite these problems, Casamayor fought remarkably well and looked better to be the better fighter than Marquez up until the stoppage occurred.

Marquez was slightly shorter than Casamayor, and wasn’t able to reach him as easy as he could with him. Often when Marquez would attempt land his shots, Casamayor would either counter him immediately after he landed or hit him on the way in. Indeed, for a fighter as old as 37 year-old Casamayor, he fought like someone in their 20s and looked superb. Marquez appeared to narrowly win the 2nd round with the use of some big uppercuts. However, Casamayor, using his longer read advantage, came back in the 3rd round and nailed him with a lot of jabs and shots to the midsection. Casamayor continued to do well in round four, hitting Marquez with some big left hands to the head.

Marquez tried to keep up with him but wasn’t able to land with as much power as Casamayor in the round. Fighting very aggressively, Marquez took control of the fight in the 5th round, and dominated the action with hard combinations and constant pressure until the 8th round when Casamayor began to rally. Casamayor appeared concerned with a cut that he sustained over his right eye in the 5th, and didn’t fight as well as he possibly could have because of them.

In rounds eight and nine, Casamayor looked light the fighter of old, effortlessly nailing Marquez with left hand after left hand and controlling the fight with ease. He continued to do well even into the 10th but was hit with several hard fight hands in the round by Marquez, which took a little out of him. In the 11th round, the fight was back and forth with both Marquez and Casamayor trading shots.

Casamayor appeared to be getting the better of it until he was hit with a long right hand from Marquez that dropped Casamayor on his backside. He got up and was met with a flurry of shots as he tried in vain to clinch Marquez. It didn’t work, however, as Marquez landed a big right hand that sent Casamayor down for the second and final time in the round. Referee Tony Weeks then stepped in and halted the bout at 2:55 of the round.