Junior welterweight up-and-comer Yomar Alamo fought to a split-decision draw against lightweight gatekeeper Antonio Moran late Friday night at the Osceola Heritage Center in Kissimmee, Florida.

Alamo, who resides in Caguas, Puerto Rico, goes to 17-0-1, 12 knockouts.

The fight was the latest in the rivalry between fighters from Mexico and Puerto Rico. Promoter Tuto Zabala predicted the fight would be competitive between the two prizefighters and he was correct.

After a dull opening round, Moran, who was coming off a devastating knockout loss to Devin Haney in his previous fight on May 25, walked Alamo down, forcing him to fight off his back foot. Both fighters exchanges combinations towards the end of the second round with Moran landing the more telling blows.

Alamo quickly switched up in round four, holding his ground and countering with sharper left and right hands to the head. The unbeaten 24-year-old outboxed Moran over the next couple of rounds, but began to look worse for wear entering the ninth round.

Sensing he was down in the fight, Moran (24-4-1, 17 KOs) let his hands go during the final two rounds, connecting with counter and lead right hands to the head of Alamo. He stunned Alamo midway during the 10th round, but was unable to land a decisive punch to drop to knockout Alamo.

One judge had Moran winning 96-94, another had Alamo winning 97-93 and the third judge scored the bout 95-95. Each fighter thought they did enough to win the fight and are open for an immediate rematch.

“I don’t have anything (more) to prove,” said Alamo after the fight. “We did great work tonight. If the promoters want a rematch, I’m up for it.”

“It was a close fight,” said Moran, who resides in Mexico City and has won once in his last four bouts. “If that’s how the judges saw it, I respect their decision, but we put on a good fight. He’s a good fighter. I agree with him, if the promoters want it it, I’m up for the rematch.”

Junior bantamweight Gabriel Bernardi of Puerto Rico overcame a knockdown in the opening round to win an action-packed unanimous decision over Ocala, Florida’s Jose Ocasio (3-1, 3 KOs).

Bernardi was dropped by two left hooks to the body in the opening round, but landed the more-effective punches during the next three rounds of the fight. All three judges scored the bout 38-37 in favor of Bernardi, who improves to 5-1, 2 KOs.

In welterweight action, Deron Thompson scored a highlight-reel knockout victory over Ivan Reyes in the third round.

The fight was a rematch of their clash on February 22, which Thompson won by unanimous decision. In Friday’s fight, Thompson (3-0, 2 KOs) dropped the taller Reyes twice in round one and had things in control until he unleashed an overhand right that dropped Reyes flat onto his back. The fight was immediately stopped as ringside physicians immediately entered the ring to render aid to Reyes, who was carried out onto a stretcher and taken to a local hospital for observation.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring 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 FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing

SUBSCRIBE NOW (CLICK HERE - JUST $1.99 PER MONTH) TO READ THE LATEST ISSUE