The developing super middleweight remained unbeaten by battering Sergio Jimenez for 6½ rounds at Pechanga Arena. The taller, stronger, younger Blancas beat up Jimenez to his head and body until referee Ray Corona decided he shouldn’t take any more punishment in a scheduled 10-round fight he clearly couldn’t win.

Jimenez was on his feet when Corona halted the action at 1:38 of the seventh round.

Milwaukee’s Blancas, 25, improved to 16-0 and produced his eighth knockout.

“I thought [the stoppage] was fair,” Blancas told DAZN’s Chris Mannix in the ring. “He was taking too much punishment. At the end of the day, we wanna go home safe to our families. So I think it was the right decision. I know the fans wanna see action, I know they wanna see a good fight and I think we delivered that. But it’s about our health and making it home safe.”

The Blancas-Jimenez match was elevated to the co-feature Friday, when WBC interim middleweight champ Jesus Ramos withdrew from his fight against Meiirim Nursultanov before he weighed in due to an illness.

Jimenez demonstrated a lot of toughness by lasting as long as he did, but the 39-year-old didn’t do much offensively and spent most of their fight absorbing an array of damaging shots. Mexico’s Jimenez (17-2-1, 15 KOs), who took this fight on two weeks’ notice, lost by knockout for the first time.

Marco Verde (7-0, 4 KOs) def. Guillermo Hernandez (7-1, 4 KOs) by KO-5 – middleweights

Eumir Marcial (8-0, 5 KOs) def. Omar Huerta (15-2-1, 13 KOs) by KO-3 – middleweights

Lazaro Lorenzana (22-0, 13 KOs) def. Marcos Rodriguez (21-3-1, 10 KOs) by MD-8 – super middleweights

Diego Luna (9-1-1, 6 KOs) def. Renny Mastrapa (4-5-2, 2 KOs) by UD-6 – welterweights

Valerii Tadtaev (6-0, 6 KOs) def. Juan Silva (3-2, 2 KOs) by KO-1 – heavyweights

Robert Guerrero Jr. (9-0, 4 KOs) def. Shawn Rall (4-8, 3 KOs) by KO-1 – junior welterweights