LAS VEGAS – A knockout would’ve been more gratifying for Bektemir Melikuziev, but he avenged his lone loss Saturday night.

The southpaw from Uzbekistan beat Gabe Rosado convincingly in their 10-round rematch on the Showtime Pay-Per-View portion of the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia undercard at T-Mobile Arena. A disciplined Melikuziev (12-1, 9 KOs) won their super middleweight bout by wide margins according to judges Tim Cheatham (99-91), Chris Migliore (99-91) and Steve Weisfeld (99-91).

Melikuziev didn’t exactly excite the crowd, which booed at times due to a lack of action, but he avenged his third-round knockout loss to Rosado in June 2021 in El Paso, Texas. He has won five straight fights, including three by knockout, since Rosado upset him.

“In the first fight against Rosado, I underestimated my opponent,” Melikuziev told Showtime’s Jim Gray through a translator. “This time, we put the work in during camp. We went through everything. This time, the goal was to showcase my skills, box and punish him as much as possible, too.”

Philadelphia’s Rosado (26-17-1, 15 KOs, 1 NC) has lost each of his four fights since the 37-year-old veteran defeated Melikuziev nearly two years ago.

“I tried, but I was a step behind,” said Rosado, who indicated he’ll retire. “Father Time, 18 years as a pro, but I was game. I walked to him, I boxed him, I tried everything, but I was a step too slow. I was a split second behind. He’s fresh, he’s young and I’m happy for him. I knocked him out bad in the first fight and he made adjustments.”

By the time the 10th round began, Melikuziev clearly led. He tried to hurt Rosado, but the resilient Rosado craftily made it to the final bell.

A hard left by Melikuziev knocked Rosado across the ring with about 30 seconds remaining in their bout, but Rosado wasn’t badly hurt. Melikuziev’s right hook caught Rosado less than 40 seconds into the final round.

Rosado’s left uppercut connected barely a minute into the eighth round, but Melikuziev responded with a right to the body and several left hands that moved Rosado backward.

Melikuziev’s left nailed Rosado with just under 40 seconds to go in the seventh round. Melikuziev’s left landed with just under 1:20 on the clock in the seventh round.

A right hook by Melikuziev caught Rosado in an exchange with a few seconds to go in the sixth round. Melikuziev hammered Rosado with a right to his body 1:10 into the sixth round.

Melikuziev drilled Rosado with a straight left hand that knocked him off balance with just under 1:10 to go in the fifth round. Rosado protected himself well, though, and prevented Melikuziev from capitalizing on that momentum.

A left-right combination by Melikuziev connected just before the fourth round ended. Melikuziev landed a right hook to Rosado’s body, but Rosado fired back with a right hand up top with about 1:15 remaining in the fourth round.

Rosado caught Melikuziev with a counter left when there were just under 10 seconds to go in the third round. Melikuziev’s left hand made Rosado reset his feet with just under 1:15 to go in the third round.

Rosado landed a short right hand with just under 1:20 on the clock in the second round, but it amounted to his only offensive output in those three minutes. Merlikuziev was even less effective during the second round.

Neither fighter did much during a dull first round in which there were barely any clean punches landed.

In their first fight, Rosado got up from a first-round knockdown that night and landed a picture-perfect right hand that knocked Melikuziev to the canvas face first, beneath a bottom rope.

Melikuziev attempted to get up, but he fell down again. Referee Rocky Burke stopped their scheduled 12-round encounter at 1:21 of the third round.

Prior to another loss Saturday night, Rosado dropped three straight decisions to Jaime Munguia, Shane Mosley Jr. and Ali Akhmedov since his shocking victory over Melikuziev.

Rosado was scheduled to make his light heavyweight debut against Gilberto Ramirez on March 18 at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. Ramirez came in absurdly overweight, however, and their fight was canceled March 17.

Golden Boy Promotions offered Rosado the Melikuziev rematch soon thereafter.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.