By David P. Greisman

 Theater, Madison Square Garden, New York City - It wasn’t the prettiest win for Felix Verdejo, but it was otherwise a clear victory over Willian Silva in a fight that seemed at first as if it could become a competitive firefight — but ultimately turned into a bout between one boxer who wanted to engage and another who wanted to elude.

Verdejo won a wide unanimous decision, with two judges seeing him the shutout victor at 100-90 while the third judge found one round to give Silva, scoring the bout 99-91.

Silva was finding a home for his right hand in the second round. In these earlier rounds, both men would stand slightly out of range, then jump forward to try to catch the other. But as Verdejo began to have more success and pick up the pace, Silva began to do less, moving more and staying out of range except for rare instances when he opened up.

Verdejo was able to pick up points by pushing the action and landing more. He even tried to load up on heavier punches to try to hurt Silva. That didn’t work. He also didn’t go to Silva’s body enough to slow down the movement. He did land enough in the 10th to briefly bring his otherwise supportive Puerto Rican fans in the crowd back to life, and they cheered again when Verdejo was announced the victor.

Verdejo landed 106 of 421 shots on the night, according to CompuBox, a 25 percent connect rate. That included 39 of 244 jabs (16 percent) and 67 of 177 power shots. Silva landed fewer than five punches per round — he was 45 of 325 on the night (14 percent), including 11 of 206 with jabs (5 percent) and 34 of 119 with power shots (29 percent).

“I felt very good during the fight. He moved a lot. He didn’t stop and fight with me,” Verdejo said afterward, according to quotes provided by promoter Top Rank. “This is basically a learning experience for me in my career. I did what I had to do, and now we keep moving forward.”

Verdejo moved to 20-0 with 14 KOs. Silva, meanwhile, suffered his first loss and is now 23-1 with 14 KOs. It is a blemish that he somehow believes he doesn’t deserve.

“I don’t care what the scorecards say,” Silva said, according to Top Rank. “I thought I won the fight. He’s a nice fighter. I was never hurt in the fight.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com