TOKYO — Japan's Hozumi Hasegawa defeated Mexico's Alejandro Valdez by technical knockout in the second round to retain his WBC bantamweight title on Thursday.

Hasegawa, making his seventh title defense, dominated from the start and sent Valdez to the canvas with a left hook with a minute remaining in the second round.

Valdez returned to his feet but referee Mike Griffin stopped the bout after Hasegawa landed a flurry of punches to the head of the challenger.

"I didn't think it would end with a knockout," Hasegawa said. "I thought it would go to a decision, so I'm very pleased."

Hasegawa improved to 25-2 with nine KOs while Valdez dropped to 21-3-1.

On the undercard, champion Oscar Larios of Mexico retained his WBC featherweight title in a split decision over Japanese challenger Takahiro Aoh.

Two judges scored the bout 115-111 and 114-112 in favor of Larios, while a third had it 114-112 in favor of Aoh.

Larios improved to 63-6-1 with 39 KOs while Aoh dropped to 16-1-1.