NEW YORK - Wladimir Klitschko seemed intent on defending his title with one hand, the left. He jabbed and jabbed and occasionally hooked Calvin Brock.

Then the IBF champion was cut by an inadvertent head butt, and the blood trickling down the left side of his face told him it was time to throw the right.

When that hand entered the fight, it was time for Brock to leave it.

Klitschko stunned Brock with a sharp left, then finished him off with a thunderous right late in the seventh round Saturday night.

“I should have tried that earlier, but it took me time to get my distance and rhythm,” Klitschko said. “He was a good defensive fighter.”

Klitschko kept the right in reserve as he piled up points with his jab. But he found the range with the right midway in the bout, and Brock had no chance when Klitschko opened up the challenger’s defense with another quick left. The big right immediately followed and Brock fell face-down to the canvas.

He got up at eight, but was wobbly and referee Wayne Kelly stopped it at 2:10.

“I knew it was over there,” Klitschko said. “It was easy to hit him with the right hand there.”

Klitschko, in his first defense of the crown he won from Chris Byrd in April, was cut over the left eye in the sixth. Wary of the cut getting worse, he unloaded several massive punches late in the sixth and through the seventh rounds.

Did he feel any urgency because of the cut?

“Yes,” the champion said. “But I was leading at that time.”

The native of Kazakhstan, who represents Ukraine, improved to 47-3 with his 42nd knockout. Brock, a 2000 U.S. Olympian, lost for the first time in 30 bouts.

“I saw the punch coming, but I couldn’t react fast enough,” Brock said. “He had a better jab than I thought he did. He was very strong.”

Klitschko’s brother, Vitali, now retired, once held the WBC crown and was considered the better of the two fighters. But Wladimir showed Saturday why he generally is looked upon as the best of the four heavyweight champions.

He certainly thrilled the Madison Square Garden crowd of 14,260 that often chanted his name by leveling the game Brock with the classic left-right combination.

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Until then, Klitschko was ahead on all three judges’ cards, but he was getting a stiff challenge from Brock — even though Brock came into the fight with unimpressive credentials despite never having lost as a professional.

Although he looked nervous and was awkward in the first two rounds, Brock began landing some body shots and avoiding Klitschko’s jabs for awhile. But it was temporary, and the 30-year-old Klitschko took charge again in the fifth round.

After he was cut in the sixth, Klitschko became more aggressive, and Brock couldn’t cope, even as many fans chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Klitschko climbed the ropes in each corner after the win and saluted the fans. After he left the ring, his smiling brother motioned former champion Lennox Lewis, who was working for HBO, to come into the ring. Lewis shook his head and said, “I’m too fat.”

Wladimir Klitschko then got serious about his future.

“I want to fight any titleholder, anyone who has a belt,” he said.

Earlier, Laila Ali made her daddy proud.

Ali stopped a thoroughly outclassed Shelley Burton at 1:58 of the fourth round to defend her WBC women’s super middleweight championship Saturday night.

After throwing kisses to her father, boxing great Muhammad Ali, when she entered the ring, she made quick work of Burton. A left-right combination smashed Burton’s nose and an eruption of blood fell to the canvas as referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stopped the bout.

“I wanted to knock her out cold,” Laila Ali said, “but unfortunately she turned her back, which meant she didn’t want any more.”

Muhammad Ali, whose 1971 loss to Joe Frazier was one of the Garden’s most memorable fights, is 64 and suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He entered the Garden riding a golf cart, got off and acknowledged the crowd that was chanting for him.

“It’s always great to have him here and have him see me fight,” Laila said.