Fighting in the junior lightweight 10-round main event at College Park Center at the University of Texas in Arlington, in an event presented by ProBox Promotions and Sampson Lewkowicz (Sampson Boxing), the two-time world title challenger Vazquez had a good first round via his superior work rate in the pocket, but Lugo came alive and flashed repeated combinations to win the next session. Lugo continued to seemingly get the better in the third, but Vazquez found his foe’s rhythm in round four and landed several eye-catching bombs from midrange. 

After a decent fifth for Vazquez, the deceptively powerful Lugo caught Vazquez with a sneaky right hand coming in that nearly dropped him and then battered the hometown fighter with power shots for the rest of the stanza. Somehow, Lugo came away from the dominant stanza with cuts over both his eyes.

A credit to his conditioning, Vazquez came out for the seventh fully recovered and caught Lugo with a catch-and-shoot left hook near the end of the closely fought round. A back-and-forth war of attrition was the theme of rounds eight and nine, as both men had their moments but both failed to take complete control.

Lugo came out firing determined haymakers in the final stanza, with several eye-catchers hitting the head of Vazquez, who was breathing noticeably heavy by fight’s end.

The scores were 96-94, 96-94 and 98-92 for Vazquez. Had Vazquez gone down, it would have been ruled a majority draw.

In the 10-round co-featured bout, Filipino middleweight puncher Weljon Mindoro, 17-0-1 (16 KOs), scored a knockdown midway, but was extended the full 10-round distance while winning a unanimous decision over Elias Espadas, 23-9-1 (16 KOs) of Mexico.

Fighting in explosive spurts, the stalking Mindoro hurt Espadas briefly with a left hook late in round two and did it again late in round three. With Espadas attempting a multi-punch rally against the ropes, Mindoro showed good defense and then knocked the Mexican down with a strong over-the-top right hand later in round four. 

Espadas came alive in rounds seven and eight and nine, landing several strong punches with both hands in combination to lump up Mindoro’s right eye.

Mindoro returned to his early-round gusto in round 10, but Espadas showed tremendous heart by standing his ground and returning with his own thunder. The pair finished the fight going toe-to-toe.

The scores were 96-93, 98-91 and 97-92, all for Mindoro.

To start the Contender Series part of the evening, lightweight Alan Garcia, 18-1 (12 KOs), won an entertaining eight-round split decision over veteran Bryan Jimenez, 18-4, (10 KOs).

Punching with authority from the outset, Jimenez hurt Garcia with an overhand left midway through round one and again later in the round with a right hook. Strong left hands, straight down the pipe, had Garcia seemingly wobbled on two separate occasions in round two as well. 

After a closer round three, Garcia landed a strong right hand of his own in a better round four and continued his comeback momentum in rounds five and six. By round seven, Garcia was having things mostly his own way against a fading Jiminez. Garcia landed a winging left hook to punctuate round eight and cap off the close, but comfortable victory. 

The scores of the well-fought bout were 77-75 Jimenez, 78-74 Garcia and a deciding tally of 78-74 Garcia. 

The night’s Future Stars series portion was headlined by a wild, foul-filled eight-round welterweight bout that saw Mexico’s Guillermo Keb, 15-0 (6 KOs), awarded a controversial sixth-round disqualification victory over James Bernadin, 13-5-1 (6 KOs), of Haiti. 

With the action filled with clinches, hitting behind the head, excessive holding, low blows and Keb bizarrely jumping into Bernardin’s arms and wrapping his legs around him twice, Referee Robert Chapa seemed to decide Bernardin was the root cause of the unrest midway through round two. He penalized Bernardin a point in round three for throwing Keb down (with Keb’s arm around his neck and legs wrapped around him in midair) and another for a low blow in round five.

An additional low blow by a frustrated Bernardin in round six prompted Chapa to declare the DQ at :51 seconds. 

Super welterweight prospect Malachi Ross (6-0, 5 KOs) quickly overwhelmed the more experienced Derrick Whitley (9-8-2) stopping him inside the first round. 

A strong left hook from Ross dropped Whitley hard and, although he got up, started the finishing sequence. Referee John Schorley waved it off at 2:35 of the opener.

Super bantamweight Figo Ramirez, 11-0-1, 5 KOs, of nearby Dallas scored a third-round TKO over Roberto Tapia, 5-4, 4 KOs.

Tapia started the fight moving around the ring while eating Ramirez jabs. The temperature changed in round two, as both 122-lbs fighters decided to stand their ground, although Ramirez continued to get the better of the action with his quicker, more varied attack. 

Mexico’s Tapia discovered body shots in round three and appeared to be coming on until Ramirez turned on the jets again and dropped him midway through the round for a count with a series of bad-intentioned haymakers. 

Smelling blood Ramirez went in for the stoppage and got it, as Referee Ellis Johnson mercifully waved it off at 2:57 of round three.

In the opening televised bout, southpaw super featherweight Damylo Scott, 2-0, won a four-round unanimous decision over Yamil Ortiz, 2-1.

Both fighters came out slugging from the opening round with Scott progressively gaining the advantage, round-by-round, by walking down and landing right hand bombs to the head of the upright Ortiz. Electing to stay on the ropes through much of the action, Ortiz landed some of his own punches but appeared to tire from the Scott’s relentless pressure attack. 

Ortiz suffered a bloody nose and a serious cut on the right eye in round two that elicited two separate checks from the ringside physician. Referee Ellis Johnson penalized Scott a point in round three for hitting behind the head. 

The scores were 39-36, 39-36 and 38-37.