LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya pounded out a bloody beat on Arturo Gatti and came back from a nine-month layoff Saturday night with a one-sided victory at the MGM Grand Garden.

	Oscar De La Hoya, right, landed a remarkable 195 of his 313 punches on Arturo Gatti.

The former world champion at four weight classes, who had an album of Latin songs nominated for a Grammy during his absence from the ring, knocked down Gatti in the first round and stopped him at 1:16 of the fifth.

"I'm not even close to becoming as good as I can become," De La Hoya said. "This is just the beginning, baby."

Gatti said he didn't expect De La Hoya's hands to be as fast as they were. De La Hoya hit Gatti with a variety of punches to the head and body, ripped cuts over both eyes and also under the right eye.

A CompuBox punch analysis credited De La Hoya with landing 195 of 313 punches. Gatti threw 308 punches, but landed only 87.

Gatti, who went down from a left hook, right, left hook to head with about 20 seconds left in the first round, tried to go blow to blow with De La Hoya, but never looked like he could take charge.

"I fought my heart out, but that's all you can do," said Gatti, 146, a former IBF junior lightweight champion who was taken to Valley Hospital for stitches.

The end came after De La Hoya, cut over the left eye early in the fifth round, landed a barrage of punches to Gatti's body and head. Gatti's corner threw in a towel and his trainer, Hector Roca, began to climb through the ropes when referee Jay Nady called a halt.

"If I didn't stop it he could have gotten killed because he wouldn't have stopped it," Roca said.

"I could have kept going, but I respect my corner's judgment," said Gatti.

De La Hoya, who weighed the welterweight limit of 147 pounds, is going to move up and challenge WBC super welterweight champion (154 pounds) Javier Castillejo of Spain on June 9.

While the 28-year-old De La Hoya hopes to not only win a world title but gain rematches from the two men who have beaten him, Shane Mosley last June 17 and Felix Trinidad in 1999, it is not known what the future holds for Gatti, who turns 28 on April 15.

De La Hoya improved to 35-2 with his 27th knockout.

Gatti, a native of Montreal who lives in Jersey City, N.J., is 33-5 with 27 knockouts. He weighed in at 146 pounds.

In an IBF cruiserweight title fight, Vassiliy Jirov, 190, a native of Kazakstan who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., knocked out Terry McGroom, 190, of Little Rock, Ark., with a left hook to the body at 1:22 of the first round.

Jirov is 28-0 with 26 knockouts.

In a scheduled 10-round bout, Rafael Pineda of Colombia, a former IBF junior welterweight champion fighting for only the eighth time since 1996, scored an upset. Pineda, 147, knocked down Oba Carr, 149, of Detroit three times in the sixth round and stopped him with 14 seconds left in the round.

It was only Carr's fourth loss in 57 fights.