Jeremiah Milton was once again forced to go to the scorecards.

The possibility of a stoppage surfaced early and late but Milton was unable to close the show and settled for a wide unanimous decision win over Craig Lewis. Scores were 80-72, 79-72 and 79-72 for Milton in their ESPN+ preliminary undercard bout Saturday from Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Milton’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A mismatch on paper was on its way to an early ending as Milton had Detroit’s Lewis (15-7-1, 8KOs) badly hurt in round two. Milton applied heavy leather but Lewis was able to make it out of the round. He caught a tongue lashing from his corner who tried to scare their charge into fighting back by suggesting the referee was going to stop the fight.

That never came close to happening, nor did Milton (11-0, 7KOs) provide much reason as he plodded his way through the middle rounds. The undefeated 29-year-old threw just one punch at a time and did not show any real sense of urgency until the eighth and final round when he had Lewis hurt on two separate occasions. He was unable to produce a knockout as he has now gone the distance in three of his last four starts after having knocked out six of his first seven pro opponents.

Headlining the show, Jared Anderson (15-0, 14KOs) and Andriy Rudenko (35-6, 21KOs) meet in a scheduled ten-round heavyweight contest.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox