SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – In a breathless 10-round brawl, Vladimir Hernandez climbed off the deck to outscore Isaias Lucero on Saturday at the the Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, California.

Hernandez, despite finding himself on the deck from a right hand in the first, was relentless and enjoyed spells of control without ever being able to say he was having things his own way. 

The 35-year-old southpaw, fighting out of Stockton, will hope this win will earn him a significant assignment, having earned a decision on a split by margins of 97-92 and 96-93 against one card of 95-94 for Lucero, who is now 19-3 (13 KOs).

There were signs in the first that there could be a long slog ahead for both. Lucero was a threat with his straight right hand against the southpaw but Hernandez, now 17-6 (7 KOs), burrowed into the body of his opponent, who nodded warily and with respect.

Early in the second, Hernandez was cut and dropped by a right hand and that served to spark some spells of serious infighting as Hernandez planted his feet and invited Lucero to come to war. The man from Tijuana obliged him, and both landed bombs without having to surrender an inch in reply.

There was little between them in the third. Hernandez tried to stay on the front foot, but the sweat was sent spraying off his head by hooks and uppercuts. But Hernandez, as is his custom, was unrelenting with his pressure.

Lucero was comfortable fighting with his back to the ropes but that suited Hernandez, who bulled forward and caused Lucero’s nose to bleed. Near the end of the fourth session, Hernandez raked him with long range blows from both hands. 

Lucero grimly nodded as he trudged back to his corner.

The fifth was a hard and brutal frame of fighting. Neither was ever far from the other and neither stopped throwing for long. It was turning into the type of fight many at the Orange Show Events Center had hoped for.

The pace was gruelling but Hernandez went through the gears in the sixth. He both threw and landed far more than a tiring Lucero who, back in his corner, looked vacantly ahead as the blood was wiped from his nose.

Lucero had a better seventh, and by the end he had Hernandez retreating after detonating a pair of left hook bombs that Hernandez had stubbornly marched through.

They continued to beat the stuffing out of one another in the eighth. Lucero had his head jolted back by a left, and the pattern continued until the end.

In the 10th and final round, Hernandez enjoyed another period of sustained control and the crowd spent prolonged spells on their feet cheering the action, but Hernandez couldn’t apply the finishing touches and Lucero would not be budged.