By Jim Dower: Undefeated heavyweight contender Kevin Johnson (22-0-1, 9 KOs) made a statement last night, stopping prospect Devin Vargas (17-1, 7 KOs) in the 6th round at the Harrah’s Marina Hotel Casino, Atlantic City, in New Jersey. Vargas, 27, a 2004 Olympian for the United States, looked good in the first two rounds, outworking Johnson and throwing a lot of punches.

If the fight had been stopped at that point, I would have thought that Vargas might be good enough to break the top 10 in the heavyweight division. But, Johnson, 29, caught Vargas against the ropes in the 3rd and hurt him with several big left hooks to the head, and then dropped Vargas with a big right hand moments later.

Vargas appeared to injure his left ear while getting hit with the big left hooks from Johnson. In the 5th round, Vargas was knocked down again against getting tagged with a hard combination from Johnson. Vargas lasted out the round, but he continued to touch at his right ear, looking in pain.

Vargas continued to throw a lot of punches in between the knockdowns and was out-landing Johnson by a wide margin during this time. However, Johnson placed his punches better and wasn’t worried about trying to match the high volume work rate of Vargas.

In between the 5th and 6th rounds, there was a question whether Vargas would come out of the 6th, because he had already been dropped twice and his right ear was giving him a great deal of problems judging from the pained look on Vargas’ face in the 4th and 5th rounds.

In the 6th, Vargas started off well throwing a lot of punches at Johnson. The punches had no effect, though, and Johnson quickly went after Vargas, measuring him with his left and nailing him with big rights. Vargas lost his mouthpiece, a move that may have been intentional to give him some time.

Johnson was immediately back on top of him after the action resumed, tagging Vargas with big right hands and left hooks to the head. Vargas was now no longer throwing punches and was getting belted with one big left hook after another.

Johnson connected with a nice left hand that staggered Vargas, sending him against the ropes where Vargas attempted to cover up under the barrage of punches. At this point, Vargas’ corner threw in the towel to save him from any more needless punishment. Referee Earl Morton then stopped the bout at 2:33 of the 6th.

In other action, lightweight Jorge Luis Teron (23-1-1, 15 KOs) defeated journeyman Aldo Valtierra (25-11, 13 KOs by a 10-round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 96-94, 97-93 and 99-91. The two had met last year in December 2008, with Valtierra defeating Teron by a 10-round majority decision.