NEWARK, New Jersey – Henry Lebron fended off an often-aggressive Andy Vences to remain undefeated Friday night.

Puerto Rico’s Lebron landed the more effective punches for much of their eight-round, 130-pound bout and won it by unanimous decision on the Shakur Stevenson-Robson Conceicao undercard at Prudential Center. Lebron won decisively on the cards of judges Ron McNair (78-74), Robin Taylor (79-73) and Paul Wallace (80-72), who scored it a shutout for the sharp southpaw.

The 25-year-old Lebron upped his record to 17-0 (11 KOs). Vences (23-4-1, 12 KOs), of San Jose, California, is 1-4 in his past five fights.

Lebron was clearly ahead entering the final round, which featured a lot of back-and-forth action. Vences landed numerous body blows and a flush left up top toward the end of the eighth round, but Lebron connected with a hard left on the inside just before the final bell sounded.

Murdaugh admonished Lebron and Vences after a clash of heads 25 seconds into the eighth round. That sequence seemed to energize Lebron, who began landing hard head and body shots on Vences later in that round.

Vences landed a right to Lebron’s body that made Lebron move away from him with just over two minutes to go in the seventh round.

A right hook by Lebron made Vences reset his feet about 40 seconds into the sixth round.

Vences tried to press the action during the fifth round, but he often smothered his punches when he attacked Lebron.

Lebron landed several straight lefts in the middle minute of the fourth round.

Lebron countered Vences with a right hook as Vences fell forward with about 25 seconds remaining in the third round.

Lebron’s straight left made Vences stumble backward a little less than 30 seconds into the second round. Lebron also suffered a cut on the left side of his forehead from an accidental clash of heads in the third round.

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