Victor Ortiz scores TKO at Club Nokia

Victor Ortiz is less than a year removed from winning six of seven bouts by knockout or technical knockout in five rounds or fewer.

It’s those memories Ortiz wants to build from, not that messy upset loss to Argentina’s Marcos Maidana at Staples Center last June.

A one-sided performance like that on Thursday night is what the 23-year-old from Ventura needed to maintain enthusiasm among those who believe Ortiz has a world junior-welterweight title in his future.

Ortiz (26-2-1, 21 KOs) produced a flurry of boxing skill in the second half of the fight, finishing his 10th-round TKO victory over a game Hector Alatorre (16-9) at downtown L.A.’s Club Nokia with an overhand-left, right-uppercut combination that forced referee David Mendoza to stop the bout 51 seconds into the round.

Ortiz didn’t surge to finish Alatorre as he’s done with others. He kept the underdog on his toes with faster, more powerful combinations and unleashed his big left on occasion.

A southpaw, Ortiz took a right by Alatorre in the second round but reacted with sharp lefts, including one to the head that staggered Alatorre and left him to stand briefly on his left leg. Ortiz tacked on another that backed up the outclassed 28-year-old from Tulare.

By the end of the sixth, Alatorre had that distant look after a right jab, and he bled under the right eye in the seventh, when Ortiz pushed Alatorre to the ropes and followed with a flurry.

Ortiz’s combinations were more focused on the body in the ninth, and he swarmed Alatorre in the decisive 10th.

In other action, Santa Ana lightweight Luis Ramos Jr. (14-0) subjected Colombian fighter Walter Estrada to a barrage of lefts at the end of the fourth round and claimed a unanimous decision. Paramount’s Charles Huerta (13-1) squeaked out a close majority decision over featherweight Guadalupe De Leon (8-10).

lance.pugmire@latimes.com