Oscar Duarte owns the night with a TKO7 of Miguel Madueno

ANAHEIM, California – Oscar Duarte took the stage and took over.

In a merciless display highlighting his power-punching advantage over replacement opponent Miguel Madueno, Mexico’s Duarte fully embraced his first headlining of a U.S. event Saturday night with a seventh-round technical knockout victory at Honda Center.

“I could tell he was feeling hurt, so I said, ‘You know what? Let’s go. It’s now or never, because this guy is hard, this guy is tough, and if I don’t finish now, I don’t know what’s going to happen next,’” Duarte told BoxingScene following the bout.

Duarte’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, was quick to remind that his fighter “did what no man could ever do, including [new lightweight titleholder] Keyshawn Davis, and knock out Madueno.”

Madueno, 31-4, stepped in on less than two weeks’ notice to replace former 140lbs world titlist Regis Prograis, who suffered a shoulder injury in training.

And Sinaloa product Madueno was game, producing an active performance that was met by the more intense power punching of Duarte.

Duarte rocked Madueno with a head shot in the second and turned his attention to the body in the third, delivering a clearly painful borderline low-blow shot at the belt, and then meeting Madueno in the center of the ring to start the fourth.

It was a purely passionate showing for the self-made fighter who was a replacement foe himself nine years ago at a tiny Los Angeles nightclub, where he cut 17 pounds in two days to make the fight, won a split decision, became a Golden Boy Promotions signee and went on to fight Ryan Garcia in 2023.

Absorbing his own crowd and moment Saturday was a palpable sensation for Duarte.

“I felt great hearing the crowd,” Duarte said. “Hearing the cheering really motivated me to keep going.”

Duarte’s zest for pounding the body paid dividends in the fifth, and he jarred Madueno’s head in the sixth.

In the seventh, Duarte pummeled Madueno in his own corner, sending the action across the ring to ropes next to Madueno’s corner.

There, body shots were followed by a big left to the face by Duarte, a hard left to the jaw, a combination to the body and two final lefts to the head before referee Thomas Taylor surged in to stop the fight 2 minutes, nine seconds into the round.

While Duarte, 29-2-1 (23 KOs), is ranked only by the WBA (ninth), his growing resume – including a knockout of Joseph Diaz Jnr and a “Latino Night” triumph over Batyr Akhmedov in November – has De La Hoya excited.

“He’s ready for a title shot,” De La Hoya told BoxingScene.

“I’m ready for a world championship. Whoever wants to give me a shot, let’s go, let’s do it,” he said. “Oscar Duarte is here. I’m ready. Please give me a chance. I’m coming.”

When someone asked if he wants a rematch with Garcia, Duarte said, “Of course.”

Who could blame Duarte for the overexuberance?

For once, the night was entirely his.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.