With journeymen opposition available, Jose Felix Jr. decided on facing a recognizable, yet dangerous opponent while awaiting for an opportunity to fight for a lightweight world title belt.

After Friday night, that opportunity to fight for a world title belt took a severe blow.

Felix was dropped five times during his 10 round bout against fringe contender Jonathan Maicelo, losing by unanimous decision at the Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas.

Maicelo improves to 25-2 1 NC, with 12 knockouts. Felix falls to 35-2-1, 27 KOs.

Felix, who was ranked number three by the WBO, had won his previous seven bouts. The fighter from the boxing hotbed of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico had been mentioned as a possible opponent for WBO titleholder Terry Flanagan and contender Felix Verdejo.

Maicelo’s most significant bout as a pro was a 12 round decision loss to Darleys Perez for an interim world title belt in January of 2015.

Felix put himself in a hole early on in the fight, as he was dropped once in the first and third rounds. Felix began to find a rhythm in round four and seemed to be winning round five before being twice in that round, both courtesy of left hooks to the head from Maicelo.

Sensing he was down, Felix began pressing the action in the second half of the fight, finding more success than in the previous rounds. Just as in the previous four times he was knocked down, Felix’s lapses on defense shows as Maicelo dropped him a fifth and final time in round nine.

Scores were 95-90, 96-90, and 97-88 for Maicelo, who has now won his last four bouts.

In the co-feature, middleweight Esquiva Falcao remained unbeaten with an eight-round unanimous decision victory over Jaime Barboza.

Falcao improves to 17-0, 12 KOs, while Barboza drops to 19-11, 9 KOs.

The Brazilian southpaw attacked the body from the opening bell, putting Barboza on the defense. Barboza attempted to hold his ground and fight back, but left himself open to be countered by the slicker Falcao throughout the fight.

Scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73.

Welterweight Arturo Marquez (6-0, 3 KOs), the son of former junior middleweight world titleholder Raul Marquez, won a four round unanimous decision over Jamykle Wade (2-1-1, 1 KO).

Featherweight Jennifer Han (16-3-1, 1 KO) dropped Olivia Gerula in round five en route to successfully defending her IBF world title belt with a one-sided decision. All three judges scored the bout 100-89 for Han, who resides in El Paso.

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