By Keith Idec

MORE LIVE RESULTS TO COME.............

NEW YORK – Souleymane Cissokho went the distance for the third time in his past four fights Saturday afternoon.

The junior middleweight prospect couldn’t knock out Vladimir Hernandez, but he produced a convincing victory in their eight-round bout at Madison Square Garden. The 27-year-old Cissokho (9-0, 6 KOs) utilized his superior speed and athleticism to pound out a unanimous-decision win over the aggressive, persistent Hernandez in the first fight on the Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz Jr. undercard.

Senegal’s Cissokho, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist for France, won all eight rounds on one scorecard (80-72) and seven rounds on two scorecards (79-73, 79-73).

The Mexican-born, Denver-based Hernandez (10-4, 6 KOs) has been knocked out only once. Israil Madrimov (2-0, 2 KOs), a highly touted prospect from Uzbekistan, stopped Hernandez in the sixth round of Hernandez’s previous fight, November 24 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

About 50 seconds into the seventh round, Cissokho blasted Hernandez with a three-punch combination that stopped Hernandez in his tracks. Cissokho drilled Hernandez with a straight right hand that made Hernandez stumble backward just before the end of the sixth round.

Hernandez landed two straight left hands early in the fifth round, which made Cissokho move away from him. Cissokho clipped Hernandez with a right-left combination with about a minute to go in the fifth.

Hernandez continued to move forward in the third round, but Cissokho made him pay by regularly landing right hands. Cissokho connected with two right hands and a left hook in the final 35 seconds of the second round. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.