By Francisco Salazar

Former world junior middleweight title challenger Joel Julio stopped Segundo Herrera in round three late Friday night at the Hotel Prado in Barranquilla, Colombia.

The win over Herrera marked Julio’s first fight in over four years.

Julio, who is originally from Monteria, Colombia and has resided in Miami, improves to 39-4, 33 knockouts.

The 33-year-old Julio was considered one of boxing’s most devastating punchers about a decade ago. Julio had won seven fights in a row before suffering back-to-back losses against WBO titleholder Sergey Dzinzurik (in November of 2008) and Jakes Kirkland more than three months later.

Julio has now won his last four bouts, dating back to a technical knockout loss to Alfredo Angulo in April of 2010.

Herrera, who resides in nearby San Basilio de Palenque drops to 8-33-4, 3 KOs. Herrera is winless in his last five bouts.

Junior welterweight German Del Castillo won a four round majority decision over Yorvis Hernandez. One judge scored the bout 38-38, while the other two judges scored the bout 39-37 for Del Castillo, who improves to 4-0-1, 2 KOs.

Pro Box del Caribe promoted the card.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper.. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing