By Jake Donovan

Nearly eight months after fighting to a dissatisfying draw, Saul "Baby" Juarez and Mario Andrade brought closure to their rivalry even if through a bout which ended in anti-climactic fashion.

A winner was decided in their junior flyweight regional title fight rematch, with Juarez settling for a technical unanimous decision victory Friday evening at Deportivo Trabajadores del Metro in Mexico City, Mexico. Scores were 67-66, 67-65 and 68-64 in favor of Juarez in their Telemundo televised sequel, which ended after a clash of heads produced a cut outside Andrade's right eye deemed too severe to continue.

Whereas their first fight was razor thin. Juarez (25-9-2, 13KOs) made sure to leave no doubt from the opening bell. The two-time title challenger jumped out to a strong start, overcoming significant height and reach disadvantages to force an inside fight and smother his opponent's punches. Andrade (14-8-6, 4KOs) struggled to maintain, but was more than willing to trade when the action called for it.

Efforts to catch Juarez coming in proved to be the journeyman's undoing, succeeding in this regard in the first fight but with Andrade unable to adapt to his opponent's adjustments this time around. It resulted in his falling into a deep hole which he was unable to overcome.

Still the fight was within reach only for an inadvertent headbutt to end the spirited affair. Juarez sought to jab the midsection of Andrade, who leaned in to distance his body from the blow only to catch the top of his opponent's forehead. Despite Andrade initiating the sequence which left him cut outside his right eyelid, it was Juarez was deducted a point for the infraction as the unaffected fighter as per a ridiculous and outdated rule by the World Boxing Council, who had a regional title at stake.

Fortunately for Juarez, enough rounds were banked to where the one-point deduction didn't cost him a certain win. The 28-year old is now just 2-5-1 in his last eight starts, but on the brighter side is 2-1-1 in his last four and—with the Boxeo Telemundo series' history as any indicator—in a favorable position to land one more crack at a major title. He entered Friday's bout on the heels of a points loss to Japan's unbeaten and excellent titlist Ken Shiro last New Year's Eve, having also previously dropped a tightly contested 12-round decision to Thailand's Wanheng Menayothin in Aug. '16.

Andrade suffers his second loss in his past four starts, strangely with the draw in their first fight serving as among his career-best performances.

On the Telemundo-aired undercard, Sergio Meija gave junior flyweight prospect Adrien Curiel the fight of his life in pulling off an upset majority decision win. Scores were 57-57 even and 58-56 (twice) in favor of Meija (3-2, 0KOs), who never stopped swinging for the fences against the vastly more experienced Curiel (11-2, 3KOs) who seemed unprepared for the firefight in which he landed and ultimately conceced.

Ana Reyes (4-6) has now scored three straight wins after stumbling out the gate to a miserable 1-6 career start. The Mexico City-based strawweight extended her current win streak with a four-round decision win over Aidé Ruiz (6-8, 0KOs), who has now dropped three of her last four starts.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox