Junior featherweight prospect Carlos Castro remained unbeaten Saturday night, winning a one-sided decision over Juan Palacios at the Celebrity Theatre in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

With the win, Castro improves to 18-0, with seven knockouts. Palacios, a former interim world titleholder at 105 pounds, falls to 29-8-2, with 22 KOs.

The 23-year-old Castro, who has never fought outside Arizona, last fought on Oct. 29, winning by decision over veteran German Meraz. Palacios, who is from Nicaragua, entered Saturday’s fight winless in six bouts.

Using a height and reach advantage, Castro rained punches down onto Palacios, who attempted to get on the inside of Castro’s guard. An inadvertent clash of heads midway through round two opened a cut at the center of Palacios’ hairline.

Undaunted, Palacios continued to press forward, making him an easy target for Castro to hit. Castro’s accurate punches connected, including a series of right hands that landed clean during the second half of the fight.

All three judges scored the bout 80-72 in favor of Castro.

Recent middleweight title challenger Artur Akavov of Russia won an eight-round split decision over veteran Josue Ovando.

Akavov improves to 17-2, with 7 KOs, while Ovando drops to 14-14-1, with 11 KOs.

There was very little action between the two fighters in the first half of the fight. The southpaw Akavov did enough to win these rounds.

Akavov began letting his hands go more in round five, but Ovando did little to engage with the fighter from Russia, choosing to be in survival mode.

One judges scored the bout 77-75 in favor of Ovando, while the other two judges scored the bout 77-75 and 78-74 for Akavov.

In his previous bout on Dec. 3, Akavov lost a close unanimous decision to WBO middleweight titleholder Billy Joe Saunders in Paisley, Scotland.

Both fights aired on beIN Sports en Espanol in the U.S.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV.com 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