By Francisco Salazar

Diego De La Hoya has shown he can box and punch in previous fights. It was De La Hoya's power that stood out on Friday night.

De La Hoya stopped Arturo Badillo in the fourth round before a sold-out crowd at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif.

The 21-year-old De La Hoya was coming off back-to-back decision victories over Jesus Ruiz and Giovanni Delgado. De La Hoya, the younger cousin of Oscar De La Hoya, was more aggressive from the opening round, sitting down on his punches, while focusing a majority of his punches to Badillo's body.

As the bout progressed, De La Hoya pressed the action, walking Badillo down and forcing him to fight defensively. The more De La Hoya initiated the action, the more he would hurt Badillo.

The end came in the fourth round when De La Hoya dropped Badillo with a vicious left hook to the body. Badillo remained on one knee as referee Jerry Cantu counted him out at 1:11.

"At first, the excitement got the best of me and I was trying to look for a knockout, but in the second round I realized I was going to play in to his game," said de la Hoya of his big win. "I decided to change the pace and take my time and just play it safe. By the third round, I realized he was getting tired and that's when I decided to take advantage and dedicate the third round to knocking him out."

De La Hoya improves to 14-0, 8 KOs, while Badillo drops to 21-10, 19 KOs.

Morales decisions Tienda

Junior lightweight Carlos Morales won a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision over Omar Tienda.

Morales landed the more telling and consistent blows throughout the fight. Tienda attempted to get on the inside of Morales' guard, but Morales easily countered or beat Tienda to the punch.

The only blemish Morales had to deal with was a cut over his right eye that he suffered in the fourth round.

All three judges scored the bout in favor of Morales, 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91.

Morales, who was winless in his first four bouts of his pro career, improves to 13-1-3, 6 KOs. Tienda drops to 14-3, 8 KOs.

Arce gets by Lizarraga

In the opening bout of the 'Boxeo Estelar' telecast, junior lightweight Nick Arce won a hard-fought six round unanimous decision over Luis Lizarraga Jr.

The scores (59-55, 59-55, and 60-54 in favor of Arce) did not reflect the back and forth action between the two fighters. Arce landed more of the harder punches, but Lizarraga landed counter right hands to the head.

Arce would have made the fight easier for himself had he utilized a consistent jab and worked from the outside against the rugged Lizarraga. Still, Arce finished strong, beating Lizarraga to the punch in route to the first decision win of his pro career.

Arce goes to 7-0, 6 KOs, while Lizarraga drops to 5-8-1, 2 KOs.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for krikya360.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing