Mauricio Herrera, (22-5, 7 KOs) won a technical decision over Hank Lundy (25-5-1, 12 KOs) Saturday night in the main event. The fight took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Multiple clashes of heads in rounds one and two left Herrera with a cuts above both eyes. The bout was closely contested but the cuts of Herrera were worsening as the fight progressed. Late in round 5 the bout was stopped by the referee after being advised by the ringside physician. The fight went to the scorecards where the official judges had it favoring Herrera 48-47 twice and one judge had it even at 48-48. The left Herrera the winner by majority decision.
Many of us who have followed the career of Herrera would not have been surprised had he not won the decision. Herrera has been on the wrong end of multiple decisions in the opinion of many. The one fight that stands out the most was his loss to then unbeaten WBC super lightweight champion Danny Garcia in 2014. The fight took place in Puerto Rico. Garcia is not from Puerto Rico but he is of Puerto Rican descent. The local fans showed strong vocal support for Garcia. Herrera took the crowd out of the fight for large segments as he was controlling the action. In the end the judges had Garcia as a majority decision winner.
It was a tough loss for Herrera but he actually bounced back to win the WBA interim World super lightweight title in his very next fight. His win over Lundy earned him the NABF super lightweight title which will go a long way for him toward moving up into serious world title contention. The 140 pound division is very stacked and there are a lot of realistic fights that can be made with Hererra. He is 35 now so sooner is much better than later from that perspective. Lundy was very upset with the loss and felt that he should have gotten the decision. I think it’s fairly safe to say that Herrerra can relate to how Lundy is feeling from personal experiences.
