CARSON, California – Brandyn Lynch did enough this time to beat Marcos Hernandez.
Fifteen months after their eight-round split draw, Lynch got up from a second-round knockdown, fought through a nasty gash above his right eye for half of their middleweight fight and defeated Hernandez by unanimous decision in an all-action slugfest on the non-televised portion of the Jermell Charlo-Brian Castano undercard at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Judges David Sutherland (76-75), Fernando Villarreal (77-74) and Zachary Young (76-75) all scored their closely contested fight for Lynch, a nephew of actor and comedian Eddie Murphy.
Los Angeles’ Lynch (11-1-1, 8 KOs) had not fought since his draw with Hernandez in January 2021 at Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles. Fresno’s Hernandez (15-6-2, 3 KOs) is 1-4-1 in his past six fights.
Lynch landed several hard shots early in the eighth round, but Hernandez fired back with a combination that made Lynch hold him.
For a second straight round, a bloodied Lynch unloaded a barrage of punches on Hernandez, who was backed against the ropes late in the sixth round. They moved to the other side of the ring soon thereafter, but Lynch again landed an array of power shots while Hernandez was backed against the ropes.
Hernandez managed to take all of those punches and made it to the seventh round.
Lynch bombarded Hernandez with power punches in the final few seconds of the fifth round. Hernandez covered up as best he could and made it to the sixth round.
Hernandez and Lynch hammered away at each other during a back-and-forth fourth round full of action. Both boxers landed to the head and body from close distances.
Hernandez dropped Lynch with a right hand in the second round, but Lynch recovered and came back to buzz Hernandez with a right hand during the third round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.