Ray Beltran made short work of Takahiro Ao whom he stopped about a minute and a half into the second round. Beltran dropped Ao in the second round with a hard right hand which Ao was never able to recover from and was relieved from his duties of fighting not long after as he sat idly on the ropes allowing punches to grace his body while he just sat back and took them forcing the referee to call a stop to the action.

Beltran, the day before missed weight by .4 lbs. meaning the WBO lightweight title that he would of won tonight in Las Vegas, NV still remains vacant. It appears that Terry Flanagan will get the next chance as Beltran has to hope that he is still in the good graces of the WBO to get another shot at the title. For Beltran, it was bitter sweat as one of his best performances of his career and potentially being the best lightweight in the world right now will be most remembered for what he didn’t do, not make weight.