GLENDALE, Calif. – Jose Felix did what he was supposed to do against a modest foe. The stoppage was icing on the cake.

Felix rebounded from his only defeat as a pro, stopping Alejandro Rodriguez in the sixth round before a sold-out crowd at the Civic Auditorium on Saturday night.

The bout headlined a Top Rank card and was broadcast live on UniMas’ popular “Solo Boxeo” telecast.

The lightweight prospect was coming off a 12-round decision loss to interim 130-pound world title holder Bryan Vasquez on April 12 in Las Vegas, Nev.

From the outset, Felix was in control of the action against Rodriguez, beating him to the punch with hooks to the head and body. One hook to the head by Felix in the third round began producing blood from the nose of Rodriguez. Although blood continued to gush out of the nose, Rodriguez hung in there, fighting back and even landing a punch or two in the process.

During an exchange in the sixth round, Rodriguez pulled away from the action, grimacing in pain and holding his right glove. Shaking his head, he motioned to referee Raul Caiz, Sr., who waved the fight over at 1:41.

Felix, from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, improves to 27-1-1, 22 KOs. Rodriguez, from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, drops to 21-15, 12 KOs.

In the co-feature bout, lightweight Ivan Najera won a eight round split decision over Stan Martyniouk.

Some of the rounds were close and difficult to score. In the first half of the fight, Najera pressed the fight, throwing and sometimes landing right hands to the head. Martyniouk would counter with his array of straight right hands to the head

Both fighters were warned for holding or hitting behind the head by referee Jack Reiss during the middle rounds, with Martyniouk being the more guiltier of the two.

As the bout progressed, Najera slowed down considerably, fighting in spurts. During the last two rounds of the fight, Martyniouk kept landing repeatedly with lead or counter right crosses to the head of Najera.

One judge scored the bout 77-75 for Martyniouk, while the other two judges scored the bout 79-73 ad 78-74 for Najera. RingTV.com scored the bout even 76-76.

Najera, from San Antonio, goes to 14-0, 8 KOs. Martyniouk, from Sacramento, drops to 13-2, 2 KOs.

In other bouts:

– Jose Zepeda stopped Adrian Garza (8-4, 6 KOs) in the third round in a scheduled eight round super lightweight bout. Zepeda (20-0, 17 KOs) dropped Garza three times in third round, prompting referee Jack Reiss to stop the fight at 2:22.

– Unbeaten and 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist Esquiva Falcao (4-0, 2 KOs) stopped Malcolm Terry in the second round. Falcao dropped Terry once in the first and dropped him again in the second, prompting referee Raul Caiz, Sr. to stop the bout at 49 seconds.

– Welterweight and 2012 Lithuanian Olympian Egidijus Kavaliauskas stopped Benjamin Whitaker in the fifth round. Kavaliauskas dropped Whitaker once in the second and twice in the fifth round, prompting referee Dr. Lou Moret to stop the fight at 47 seconds.

– Lightweight Luis Sedano won a four round unanimous decision over Luis Diaz. Sedano was dropped by a right hand in the first round, but dominated the rest of the way to win by scorecards of 38-37, 38-37, and 38-36.

– Welterweight Liam Vaughn (9-2, 2 KOs) won a four round unanimous decision over Saul Benitez (3-6-1). All three judges scored the bout in favor of Vaughn, 40-36, 40-36, and 39-37.

– Opening the Top Rank/ Bash Boxing card, cruiserweight Alex Zubov won a six round unanimous decision over Harvey Jolly (15-20-1, 7 KOs). All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Zubov (5-0, 4 KOs).

– Junior featherweight Edgar Valerio won a four round unanimous decision over Adrian Rodriguez (0-2-1). All three judges scored the bout 39-37 in favor of Valerio (4-0, 2 KOs).

– In the walkout bout of the evening, junior welterweight Paul Velarde (4-4-3) won a six round unanimous decision Zach Wohlman (8-2-1, 1 KO). All three judges scored the bout in favor of Velarde, 58-56, 58-56, and 59-55.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. He also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing