Mark "Canelo" Urvanov didn't lose, though he suffered yet another setback.

The junior lightweight hopeful was held to a split decision draw by relatively unheralded Murad Aliev in their ten-round main event Saturday evening at RCC Boxing Academy in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Both boxers were awarded a 96-94 verdict on separate cards, overruled by a 95-95 tally from the third judge to produce the stalemate. 

Urvanov tried to push action against elusive and fast-moving Aliev but failed to catch him cleanly at any given moment. Aliev did well when he tried to engage into the fight with Aliev but he wasn't overly active with his offense giving his opponent time to re-group and get back to his stalking mode.

A frustrated Urvanov tried to raise his own confidence through showboating later in the fight. The extra theatrics didn't help, as the 27-year-old from Pervouralsk missed with most of his punches as Aliev did not fall for the mind games.  

The three-way draw should be considered a good result for 28-year old Aliev, who is now 6-0-2 (2KOs). The 28-year-old prospect from Tsimlyansk has previously defeated Urvanov's teammates Stanislav Kalitskiy and Ruslan Kamilov, and also has a win against former WBC junior featherweight title challenger Franklin Manzanilla.

Urvanov is just four fights removed from his loss to Angel Rodriguez in what was the WBA eliminator at the time. Two fights ago, the proclaimed Russian 'Canelo' (only due to his red hair) won a ten-round, unanimous decision win over former WBA junior lightweight titleholder Rene Alvarado in his most notable victory to date.