LAS VEGAS — They were like two tiny rock’em, sock’em robots. WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez and Angelino Cordova could not get out of each other’s way on the Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora undercard Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions’ inaugural Amazon Prime event from the T-Mobile Arena.

Martinez (21-3, 15 knockouts) made his seventh successful title defense against Cordova, though barely, winning by majority decision.

Judge Tim Cheatham had it 113-113, which was overruled by Max De Luca and David Hudson, who each had it 114-112 for Martinez.

Martinez was bleeding from a cut over his left eye; Cordova’s face was misshapen with his left cheek growing another cheek.

Every punch seemed like a power punch.

Martinez knocked down Cordova in the first 10 seconds of the third round with a straight left jab to the chin. Martinez did it again with a hammer jab with 2:14 left in the round.

Somehow, Cordova came out of it standing on stiff legs.

With two minutes left in the fifth, Martinez appeared to have Cordova in trouble. Again, Cordova found a way to survive. Both fighters could not help but land, though their punches were wild and from every conceivable angle.

With 1:07 left in the sixth, Martinez battered Cordova once more with a wide left that connected.

Cordova had Martinez against the ropes in the first 30 seconds of the eighth round, but Martinez fought his way off. It was power punch after power punch. Cordova appeared to be on shaky legs, though he seemed to be effective. He even had some fun, faking a bolo punch and doing a bad impersonation of the Ali shuffle.

The two closed much like they opened, whaling away at each other wildly. As the final bell sounded, Cordova raised his arms thinking he had won.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JSantoliquito

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