Janelson Bocachica (17-0, 11 KOs) earned a majority decision victory over Mark Reyes Jr. (14-1, 12 KOs) at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on Wednesday.
A close contest between two previously-unbeaten power hitters was scored 96-94 and 97-93 in favour of Bocachica, 22, while the third judge had the headline bout as a draw at 95-95.
Many experts expected the contest to finish inside the distance, given the credentials of each competitor heading into the fight.
“I felt like I had a unanimous decision but I just need to go back and watch the tape,” said Bocachica afterward.
“I felt like it was an easy victory and I took him to school. He had a short temper and he came out talking trash so you know I had to talk my trash back. But it was all part of the game plan to get him emotional in the ring and it worked in my advantage.”
Reyes said: “I don’t disagree with the scorecards tonight. I obviously could have done more to win but it was a close fight nonetheless. I just have to go back to drawing board and train harder.
"I need to execute things a little bit better during the preparation for my fight. I can’t take anything away from the judges.”
Elsewhere on the card, unbeaten super-middleweight Vladimir Shishkin (12-0, 7 KOs) was victorious via unanimous decision against Sena Agbeko (23-2, 18 KOs) despite a nasty cut over his left eye. He took all three cards with scores of 98-92 and 100-90 (twice) over 10 rounds.
Lightweight Abraham Montoya (20-2-1, 14 KOs) ended the unblemished record of Alejandro Guerrero (12-1, 9 KOs) to win an eight-round majority decision (76-76, 79-73, 77-75) and middleweight Timur Kerefov (10-0, 5 KOs) continued his strong start to the pro ranks with a quality body shot to finish Fernando Farias (10-1-2, 4 KOs) inside the first round.