Photos: Brandon Figueroa, Julio Ceja - Thrilling War Ends in Draw

MGM Grand, Las Vegas - WBA "regular" super bantamweight champion Brandon Figueroa (20-0-1, 15 KOs) and Julio Ceja (32-4-1, 28 KOs) traded hard punches at a furious pace for twelve rounds, which resulted in a split draw verdict. (photos by Stephanie Trapp, Ryan Hafey)

The scores were 115-113 for Figueroa, 116-112 for Ceja, and 114-114.

The contest was a non-title bout, because Ceja failed to make weight on Friday. He was over four pounds beyond the 122-pound limit.

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In the first, Ceja was doing good work to the body, but he was getting tagged to the head and the shots were doing damage. They were trading big punches in the second round, with both having their moments. Figueroa was connecting with the harder shots, but Ceja was landing hard as well.

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Figueroa was connecting with a lot of punches in the third. Ceja was trying to overcome the big storm of shots. After Figueroa did well in the fourth, cejas was landing heavy blows in the fifth. He was connecting with hard shots on Figueroa on the inside, to the head and body.

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Ceja continued to rally in the sixth, by outworking and outlanding Figueroa. A close seventh, that could gone eight way, with both trading on the inside. During the eight, Ceja connected with some heavy blows on Figueroa, who seemed to be rattled for the first time. Ceja had a very solid ninth and tenth, as he used combinations to pound the body of Figueroa.

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The eleventh was tough for Figueroa, who was in there trading but ate a lot of punches to the head and body. They came out trading punches in the twelfth. Figueroa was going for broke, letting all of his shots hang out. Ceja was not landing as much and trying to hold off the rally of Figueroa.

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