Pacquiao proves a cut above

The urgency that Manny Pacquiao needed arrived in the form of his cut eyebrow.

After sustaining an inch-long, head-butt-induced gash over his left eye in the sixth round, Pacquiao treated his Saturday night super-featherweight opponent Jorge Solis the way most fight fans thought he would, and proceeded to deliver an eighth-round knockout in front of 14,793 at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Pacquiao (44-3-2), the Philippines boxer considered one of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters, hurt Solis with a long flurry to close the sixth round, kept the previously unbeaten foe on the defensive in the seventh and then knocked Solis down once in the eighth with a left uppercut that was followed seconds later by a crisp left that ended the bout with 1:44 to go.

“When I got cut, I knew I needed to throw more combinations to knock him out,” Pacquiao said in the ring after recording his 34th career knockout. “When he got hurt and saved by the bell [in the sixth], I decided to go to the body and head to finish him off.”

Pacquiao was the more offensive fighter throughout, but his speedy punches didn’t land easily, and Solis (32-1-2), of Mexico, surprisingly sneaked in some telling blows, including a combination that backed Pacquiao into the ropes in the fifth round.

Trainer Freddie Roach told Pacquiao before the sixth that Solis “won’t last,” and when Pacquiao and Solis butted heads with Pacquiao trying to throw a left early in the sixth round, Roach was proved correct.

“[Pacquiao] was just going half speed in the early rounds,” Roach said. “After the cut, I told him to stop playing and go out and finish it off. The guy needs a challenge. When he got cut, that was his challenge.”

Now headed for a campaign run for a seat in the Philippines’ House of Representatives on May 14, Pacquiao said he would next like to fight World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. The pair battled to a draw in 2004.

Saturday’s card included two world-title fights.

Mexico’s Cristian Mijares, 25, defended his recently won WBC super flyweight championship with a dominating showing against two-time former world champion Jorge Arce of Mexico. The 12-round bout was won to Mijares on scores of 119-109, 118-110, 117-111.

Mijares (31-3-2) lacks knockout power but his skills quickly wore down Arce, and were illustrated by a 437-132 advantage in punches landed, according to a ringside statistician.

The southpaw Mijares’ quickness overwhelmed a frustrated Arce, who couldn’t answer the champion’s 1 1/2 -inch reach advantage without absorbing continued punishment.

“This was the biggest fight of my life,” Mijares said. “My dream came true tonight. I beat a warrior.”

Arce (46-4-1) had been unbeaten in 26 consecutive fights dating to a 1999 loss, but an accidental eighth-round head-butt and Mijares’ precision barrages left Arce’s nose, left eyelid and face a bloody mess by the 10th round. Arce, 27, was trying to win a world championship after previously holding the WBC light flyweight and flyweight belts.

In a battle for the vacant WBC light-flyweight championship that went the 12-round distance, Mexico City’s Edgar Sosa surprised the division’s former champion, Brian Viloria of Honolulu, 115-113, 115-113, 114-114.

Viloria (19-2-1) was trying to regain the belt he lost in November to Omar Nino, who tested positive for methamphetamine after the bout and had his title stripped.

Sosa (27-5) had his knees buckled by a Viloria right in the seventh round, but Sosa landed a sharp combination in the ninth that sent Viloria’s head backward to a ring corner pad.

By the 12th, Viloria was flashing a swollen right eye and a left forehead lump as Sosa decided the bout with hard rights that left Viloria resigned to holding his gloves upward in defense.

The pro-Mexican crowd also enjoyed a quick knockout by Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who dismissed welterweight foe Anthony Shuler (20-5-1) a mere 1:32 into the second round. The 21-year-old Chavez Jr., with his legendary boxing father looking on, improved to 31-0-1 with 24 knockouts. He’s the WBC’s 10th-ranked welterweight.

Pugmire reported from Los Angeles.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com