UNCASVILLE, Connecticut – Abraham Montoya made the most of his opportunity against an undefeated prospect in a televised fight Wednesday night.

The Mexican veteran threw exactly 1,000 punches and out-worked Alejandro Guerrero to win their eight-round lightweight bout by majority decision. Judge Glenn Feldman scored their action-packed encounter even (76-76), but John McKaie (79-73) and Steve Weisfeld (77-75) credited Montoya for his activity and harder punches in the opener of a “ShoBox: The New Generation” tripleheader at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Mexicali’s Montoya improved to 20-2-1 (14 KOs). The 22-year-old Guerrero, of Irving, Texas, slipped to 12-1 (9 KOs).

A counter left hand by Montoya stopped Guerrero in his tracks just before the halfway point in the eighth round. Montoya’s short right hand also connected toward the end of that final round.

Guerrero knocked out Montoya’s mouthpiece with a left hook that landed with just over two minutes to go in the seventh round. Montoya snapped back Guerrero’s head with a right hand with about 35 seconds left in that seventh round.

Guerrero blasted Montoya with a left-right-left combination that briefly wobbled him in the middle minute of the sixth round. Earlier in the sixth, Guerrero caught Montoya with a right to the side of his head that made Montoya retreat.

Montoya landed a left to Guerrero’s body and followed with a left hook up top with just under 1:20 remaining in the fifth round. Montoya’s pressure and power shots kept Guerrero on his back foot for much of that round.

Montoya backed up Guerrero with a right hand 1:05 into the fourth round. They traded on the inside in the final 20 seconds of that fourth round.

Guerrero and Montoya kept their blistering pace in the third round and continued drilling each other with thudding punches. Montoya worked well off of his jab in that round.

Montoya landed several unanswered punches just after the midway mark of the second round, including a right hand that landed flush.

After taking some hard shots in the opening minute, Guerrero landed a left-right combination about 1:15 into the first round. Montoya drilled Guerrero with a right uppercut and then a left uppercut with about a minute to go in the opening round.

Guerrero and Montoya then traded hard body shots near the end of an action-packed first round in which both boxers threw a combined 235 punches, according to CompuBox.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.