Richard Torrez lands a massive upper cut to secure his fifth pro knockout on ESPN

Richard Torrez Jr. made his time in the boxing ring Friday night short and quick — again.

The Tulare native connected on a left uppercut that sent James Bryant stumbling to the ropes and the canvas to pick up a technical knockout win in the opening round of their schedule six-round heavyweight fight at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz.

“When you land a punch like that, it almost feel like no glove there,” Torrez told ESPN. “It feels like a solid shot from your knuckles to his head, and that’s when you kind of know I hurt this guy.”

Torrez (5-0) has knocked out all of his foes in three rounds or less.

His bout opened the ESPN telecast on the undercard of the Emanuel Navarrete-Liam Wilson bout for the vacant WBO junior lightweight world title. Navarrete stopped Wilson in the ninth round.

Bryant’s trainer told referee Mark Calo-Oy he couldn’t continue. Torrez landed 12 of 24 power shots.

Torrez said if Bryant continued, it would’ve been a matter of time before the fight ends.

“I thought he was in the recovering stage because he had a minute left,” he said. “I would’ve pressed that pressure. I started off the first round slower than I usually do. I wanted to set my distance and set my jab up and luckily that upper cut landed and there was more to come.”

Torrez captured an Olympic silver medal in Tokyo and turned pro and signed with Top Rank in March.

In October, Torrez won at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, with a third-round stoppage over Ahmed Hefny.