Marcos Maidana is moving up in the boxing world.

The hard-punching Argentine rebounded from a split-decision loss to Andreas Kotelnik in February in his only shot at a major title by stopping Victor Ortiz in a thriller Saturday night in Los Angeles.

As a result, Maidana is in position for another opportunity to fight for a major title in the near future.

He also jumped from No. 10 to No. 8 in THE RING junior welterweight ratings after surviving three knockdowns to score a sixth-round TKO over the rising star from Oxnard, Calif. Ortiz went down twice.

Maidana’s advancement drops Ricardo Torres from No. 8 to No. 9, and Herman Ngoudjo from No. 9 to No. 10.

In other weight classes:

JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHT: Guerrero is reinstated at No. 9, which drops Sergey Gulyakevich from No. 9 to No. 10, and forces out Kevin Mitchell (No. 10 last week).

“THE RING took Guerrero at his word when he said, following his TKO of Efren Hinojosa, that he would continue to campaign at lightweight,” said Nigel Collins, editor of THE RING magazine. “But now that Guerrero is challenging Malcolm Klassen for the IBF 130-pound title on Aug. 22, we have returned him to the junior lightweight ratings.”

JUNIOR FEATHERWEIGHT: Rafael Marquez (No. 1 last week) departs to campaign at featherweight and will be rated in his new division if and when his accomplishments at 126 pounds warrant it.

Marquez’s exit moves up everybody rated No. 2 to No. 10 last week one slot each. New at No. 10 is Jeff Mathebula, who held No. 1-rated Celestino Caballero to a split decision in his most recent bout.

STRAWEIGHT: Nkosinahi Joyi (No. 8 last week) and Florante Condes (No. 4 last week) trade places as a result of Joyi’s 12-round decision victory over Condes.