By Jake Donovan

Antonio Moran fended off a strong second half surge from scrappy veteran Juan Pablo Sanchez to claim a unanimous decision win Friday evening at Auditorio Blackberry in Mexico City, Mexico..

Scores were 96-94, 97-93 and 98-92 in favor of Moran, whose superior boxing skills were enough to persevere in the headlining act of Boxeo Telemundo. The broadcast team for Telemundo had the regional lightweight title bout scored 96-94 for Moran, as did BoxingScene.com. 

It was a tale of two fights, with Moran boxing well early and putting his considerable height and reach advantages to good use. Sanchez was strong out the gate but quickly found himself at the tail end of Moran's long jab and straight right hand as he struggled to work his way inside for much of the first half of the evening's main event.

The tide turned in round six, when Sanchez was able to bully his way inside and force the younger Moran to stand and trade more than he desired. The tactic seemed to have worked - despite the lopsided scores turned in on two of the three scorecards - as Sanchez was able to connect with compact right hands and occasional left hooks.

To the naked eye,  the fight was very much on the table heading into the final two rounds. Moran made the adjustments he needed to reclaim control in a strong round nine, one that mathematically put Sanchez out of the running in claiming a points win. His only way to prevail was by knockout, which he tried in vain to accomplish in a big 10th and final round, but never to the point of Moran being in any trouble

As the final bell sounded and the scores were announced, Moran extended his win streak to five straight as he improves to 20-1 (13KOs). Meanwhile, the 28-year old Sanchez comes up short for the second time in his past three starts as he falls to 30-13 (14KOs).  

In the evening's chief support, Salvador Juarez claimed an eight-round split decision over Martin Casillas, a series favorite but whose career has hit free-falling status. 

The bantamweight scrap was competitive every step of the way, with an argument to be made that Casillas (15-8-1, 9KOs) deserved the nod. He managed a 77-75 tally on the lone dissenting card, which was overruled by matching scores of 78-75 for Juarez (7-3-2, 2KOs). 

Casillas has now lost five in a row, while Juarez - who staggered out to a 1-3-2 career start - has now claimed six straight victories. 

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2