After their 10-round welterweight fight Friday night, the futures of Pablo Cesar Cano and Mauricio Herrera are much clearer.

For Cano, he stays in the hunt in the deep 147-pound division. For Herrera, the days of being a legit contender may have come to an end.

Cano did enough to outbox and beat Herrera to the punch, winning by split decision at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif. Cano improves to 30-5-1, 21 knockouts. Herrera falls to 22-7, seven KOs.

Both fighters were coming off losses in their previous fights. Cano lost by split decision over 10 rounds against Alan Sanchez on May 6, while Herrera lost a one-sided decision to Frankie Gomez one day later.

A victory would prolong their career, while a loss jeopardized any hope of remaining relevant as a legit contender.

After an even few opening stanzas, it was Cano who was the busier fighter, backing Herrera against the ropes. Cano dug to the body, but one stray punch below Herrera’s belt-line in round four forced referee Ray Corona to deduct a point from Cano.

Herrera did have his moments, scoring well in spots, but it was not consistent enough to win rounds.

Cano was again deducted a point for landing a low blow, this time in round eight. Herrera attempted to carry the momentum, but looked very sluggish while Cano seemed to be the fighter with more energy and snap to his punches.

He did so on one judge’s scorecard (95-93), but the other two judges scored the bout 97-91 in favor of Cano.

In the co-featured bout, welterweight KeAndre Gibson won an eight-round unanimous decision over Mahonry Montes.

Gibson, who is one go Golden Boy Promotions’ top prospects, improves to 16-0-1, 7 KOs, while Montes falls to 32-6-1, 22 KOs.

The taller Montes was able to use his height to his advantage at times, but Gibson was the busier and more effective boxer throughout the fight. Gibson was deducted a point from referee Eddie Hernandez in round two for landing a low blow onto Montes.

Scorecards were 77-74, 78-73, and 79-72.

In super middleweight action, Morgan Fitch improved to 18-0-1, 8 KOs with a six round majority decision over Travis Scott (19-1 1 NC, 5 KOs).

One judge scored the bout 57-57, while the other two judges scored the bout 59-55 and 58-56 for Fitch.

In other action:
– Lightweight Oscar Duarte (9-0-1, 5 KOs) stopped Rony Alvarado (9-9, 5 KOs) at 1:13 of round five.

– Bantamweight Joshua Franco (8-0, 4 KOs), who is trained by Robert Garcia, won a one-sided decision over Felipe Rivas (17-18-4, 11 KOs. All three judges scored the bout 60-54 in favor of Franco.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing