Fringe junior lightweight contender Pablo Vicente won a hard-fought majority decision over Angel Rodriguez Saturday night at the Centro de Convenciones Vasco Nunez de Balboa in his adopted hometown of Panama City, Panama.

One judge scored the bout 95-95, while the other two judges scored it 97-93 and 96-94 for Vicente, who improves to 21-1, 16 knockouts.

Rodriguez momentarily stunned Vicente early in the second round, but Vicente was able to recover and dictate the pace of the fight. Rodriguez did connect with hard left hooks or right hands to Vicente’s head, but Vicente continued to outbox and landed the more effective punches during most exchanges.

The 29-year-old Vicente, who was born in Cuba and is promoted by Sampson Lewkowicz, last fought on August 27, scoring a one-sided decision win over Mexico’s Miguel Arevalo Mejia. He has won his last nine bouts since losing a close split decision to Marcos Villasana in July 2018.

Rodriguez, who is originally from Venezuela and now resides in Barranquilla, Colombia, drops to 20-3, 10 KOs. The 35-year-old last fought on July 16, losing a unanimous decision to Lamont Roach.

In a clash of unbeaten featherweight prospects, hard-hitting Mirco Cuello of Argentina improved to 10-0 (9 KOs) by stopping Leivy Frias in the opening round. Time of the knockout was 2:32.

Cuello is also promoted by Lewkowicz.

Frias, who resides in Villa Altagracia in the Dominican Republic, falls to 12-1, 10 KOs.

Featherweight Rafael Pedroza of Panama outboxed Colombia’s Hugo Berrio (28-9-1, 18 KOs) to win a one-sided decision.

Scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 79-73 for Pedroza, who improves to 14-0 with 11 KOs.

The card was co-promoted by Lewkowicz and Carlos Andres Tello and aired live throughout Latin America on TyC Sports.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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