NEWARK, New Jersey – Henry Lebron fended off the often aggressive Andy Vences to remain undefeated on Friday night.
Puerto Rico’s Lebron landed the most effective punches for much of their eight-round, 130-pound fight and won it by unanimous decision on the Shakur Stevenson-Robson Conceicao undercard at the Prudential Center. Lebron decisively won on the scorecards of judges Ron McNair (78-74), Robin Taylor (79-73) and Paul Wallace (80-72), who scored a shutout for the strong southpaw.
Lebron, 25, raised his record to 17-0 (11 KOs). Vences (23-4-1, 12 KOs), of San Jose, California, is 1-4 in his last five fights.
Lebron was clearly ahead entering the final round, which featured plenty of back-and-forth action. Vences landed numerous body shots and a flush left towards the end of the eighth round, but Lebron connected with a hard left inside just before the final bell.
Murdaugh booked Lebron and Vences after a clash of heads 25 seconds into the eighth round. That sequence seemed to energize Lebron, who began landing hard head and body shots on Vences later in that round.
Vences landed a right hand to Lebron’s body that caused Lebron to walk away from him with just over two minutes left in the seventh round.
A right hook from Lebron caused Vences to readjust his feet about 40 seconds into the sixth round.
Vences tried to press the action during the fifth round, but he often stifled his punches when attacking Lebron.
Lebron landed several straight lefts in the middle minute of the fourth round.
Lebron answered Vences with a right hook as Vences fell forward with about 25 seconds remaining in the third round.
Lebron’s straight left caused Vences to stumble backwards just under 30 seconds into the second round. Lebron also suffered a cut on the left side of his forehead from an accidental head butt in the third round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
