MIAMI GARDENS, Florida – Aaron Aponte didn’t get the knockout he wanted to produce for his hometown fans Saturday night, but he beat Harry Gigliotti impressively.

The 19-year-old junior welterweight prospect scored a fourth-round knockdown and recorded a shutout on the scorecards against Gigliotti in their four-rounder on the Canelo Alvarez-Avni Yildirim undercard at Hard Rock Stadium. Aponte, of nearby Hialeah, Florida, won by the same score, 40-34, on all three scorecards to improve to 2-0 (1 KO).

Aponte also ended Gigliotti’s five-fight winning streak. Gigliotti, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, slipped to 6-2 (3 KOs).

Aponte scored a flash knockdown early in the fourth round. Gigliotti got right to his feet and threw hard shots of his own soon thereafter.

Aponte connected with a right hand as Gigliotti came forward later in the fourth round. Gigliotti had a point deducted with about 20 seconds to go in the fourth round for leading with his head.

A game Gigliotti kept pressing forward in the third round, but he was slowed down when Aponte landed a low left that caused a break in the action. Aponte landed a short, left hook as Gigliotti tried to back him into a corner later in the third round.

Gigliotti kept coming forward in the second round and mostly pumped his jab. Aponte used his legs well, avoided most of Gigliotti’s punches.

Aponte also landed a hard left hook toward the end of the second round. He followed up with an overhand right several seconds later.

Aponte landed several straight right hands during the opening round. He also unloaded two hard left hooks to Gigliotti’s body in that first round.

In the opening bout Saturday night, Alexis Espino stopped Ashton Sykes in the fifth round of their scheduled six-round super middleweight bout.

Las Vegas’ Espino (7-0, 5 KOs) rocked Sykes with a right hand near the midway mark of the fifth round. Sykes stumbled backward and tried to cover up.

Espino continued hitting him with unanswered power punches, which led to a stoppage at 2:03 of the fifth round.

Sykes (5-4, 1 KO), of Columbia, Maryland, had some success earlier in the bout against an inactive Espino. Ultimately, he lost by technical knockout for the second time in nine professional fights.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.