James Noli Maquilan shook off a lethargic start to post a sensational 11th-round stoppage of Jason Facularin to retain his World Boxing Council Asia Continental bantamweight belt late Saturday night during Manny Pacquiao Presents: Blow-By-Blow show at the Cuneta Astrodome.

Referee Jerold Tomeldan called a halt to the scheduled 12-rounder at the 1:03 mark upon seeing one of Facularin’s cornermen go up the ring to plead that the fight be stopped immediately as the small but boisterous crowd erupted in cheers.

Representing the Penalosa Boxing Gym of Parañaque, Maquilan floored Facularin in the fifth with a classic jab-straight combo and late in the tenth round with a perfectly timed left hook.

The win boosted Maquilan’s card to 10-1 with seven knockouts while the loss dropped Facularin’s mark to 8-2 with eight knockouts.

Facularin, fighting out of Ring Master Gym of Davao City, started strong as he forced Maquilan to the ropes in the first two frames with a furious two-fisted head and body assault.

But Maquilan, known to be a slow starter, found a way to counter his foe’s aggressiveness en route to the smashing win in the fastest-growing weekly television boxing program on ONE Sports channel shown every Sunday at 8:30 p.m.

Eight-division legend Manny Pacquiao could not help but rave about the fantastic showing of Maquilan and those who fought in the undercard.

“Blow-By-Blow is fully committed at developing Filipino fighters and I will be leading the way to enable them to fulfill their dreams,” Pacquiao said.