By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Frank Galarza wasn’t especially sharp during his first fight in 14 months, but it was enough to overcome Jaime Herrera.

Brooklyn’s Galarza beat Herrera by unanimous decision in their eight-round junior middleweight match Saturday night in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The fight appeared more competitive, however, than two of the three judges had it, particularly in its second half.

Judge John McKaie scored it 78-74 for Galarza. Judges Allen Nace (79-73) and Robin Taylor (80-72) credited Galarza with an even more decisive victory.

Galarza-Herrera was one of six fights on the non-televised portion of the Sergey Kovalev-Vyacheslav Shabranskyy undercard.

Galarza (18-2-2, 11 KOs) and Herrera (15-6-1, 8 KOs) were in each other’s fight for much of the competitive bout, but neither possessed the power to badly hurt his opponent.

Galarza, who consistently landed to Herrera’s body, connected with perhaps his most effective punch when he buzzed Herrera with a right hand within the first 20 seconds of the seventh round. Herrera held temporarily after that shot connected.

Herrera landed two left hands just before the 30-second mark of the fifth round that caused Galarza to hold. Galarza landed a low blow, for which referee Smoger gave Herrera a brief break with 13 seconds to go in the second round.

Herrera also suffered a cut over his left eye in the fifth round, which Smoger ruled was caused by a punch.

The 32-year-old Galarza fought for the first time since losing a 10-round majority decision to veteran Ishe Smith (29-9, 12 KOs) in September 2016. The 28-year-old Herrera, of Franklin Park, Illinois, also ended a one-year layoff.

Before Galarza’s victory, Mejirim Nursultanov made quick work of Eric Moon in their middleweight match.

Kazakhstan’s Nursultanov needed just 1:54 of the first round to stop Atlanta’s Moon. Nursultanov hurt Moon with a flurry of punches and referee Ricky Gonzalez stopped the fight while Moon was still standing, near his own corner.

The unbeaten Nursultanov notched his fifth win and his fourth knockout. Moon lost for the first time as a pro (7-1).

In the last non-televised fight Saturday night, Bakhram Murtazaliev knocked down Carlos Galvan twice in the fifth round and stopped him in a welterweight fight that was scheduled for 10 rounds.

Gonzalez stopped the fight at 1:31 of the fifth round after Russia’s Murtazaliev (11-0, 9 KOs) dropped Colombia’s Galvan (16-6-1, 15 KOs) with a body shot.