KEY WEST - Boxing fans filled Mallory Square on Saturday night for the most stacked card in the seven-year history of Fight Night in the Keys.

Unfortunately for the local fighters on the card, only one was able to come away with a victory.

Danny Van Staden, the crowd favorite and the only boxer billed as being from Key West, suffered a TKO loss to Ray Betancourt in their bout for the Florida State Super Lightweight championship, and Damian Frias, also in manager Si Stern's local camp of fighters, lost a unanimous decision to three-time national Golden Gloves champion Brad Solomon for the State Welterweight title. Marcus Upshaw, however, won via a fourth-round knockout to pick up the lone victory for the local crew.

The card's other four bouts, including the headliner, which pitted Odlanier Solis against Carl Drummond for the WBC International Heavyweight title, began after press time.

Van Staden (16-3), a southpaw, injured his left hand in the second round on an uppercut that sent Betancourt (8-4) to the canvas. With the hand swelling, Van Staden was forced to change his approach, and he suffered in the later rounds.

After suffering a bloody cut to his nose in the fifth, Van Staden took a vicious right hook in front of his corner late in the seventh and then took several more shots before falling to a knee. The referee stepped in and called the fight with 53 seconds remaining in the round.

"With no left hand, I really couldn't jab," Van Staden said. "There was really nothing left for me with no left hand, and I took a lot of big punches."

Despite the knockout, the bout, which was scheduled for eight rounds, was still the longest of Van Staden's career. Each of his previous fights were four-rounders. He said he didn't feel fatigued during the bout.

"I wasn't really that tired, I just took a lot of hard punches," he said. "I definitely had better training for this fight than the last one, when I ran out of gas in the third round."

Upshaw's win kicked off the show, the final two hours of which were broadcast on FSN.

The 6-foot-3 Upshaw (12-4-1) knocked down Scott Ball (11-7) in the first round to give the crowd some quick excitement. Against his trainer's wishes, Upshaw said he was going for the quick KO.

"My trainer was getting on me about that," he said. "He was like, 'It's going to come, don't look for the knockout.' It took me a while to get warmed up because it's been nine months since I'd been in the ring, so I was a little anxious. By the third round, though, I calmed down."

The boxers traded blows throughout the fourth before Upshaw ended it with 53 seconds in the round when he delivered a right hook to put Ball into the ropes and then ended it with a jab that sent Ball to the canvas.

"It feels good," Upshaw said of his first win in Key West. "To come down to the Keys as the first Florida state middleweight champion and get the first victory on the card, it feels great. It was a good experience. I'm definitely looking forward to getting back down here again."

After the losses by Van Staden and Frias (16-3), who didn't win a round in an 80-72 decision loss to Solomon (10-0), Upshaw said he was proud to be able to get at least one win for the local stable.

"I say yeah, because when one of us wins, we all win," he said when asked if he felt like he helped to carry the local crew Saturday night. "We're all in it together and we breathe together and sweat together. But I'm going to say no because we all had our parts and we all trained too hard. They didn't bring it home, so I did it for all of us."

wjacobson@keysnews.com