By Jake Donovan

SAN ANTONIO - Undefeated Omar "Panterita" Figueroa (26-0-1, 18 KOs) won an intense slugfest over former world champion Antonio DeMarco (31-6-1, 23 KOs) in primetime Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on NBC from the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

Figueroa earned the unanimous decision in an action-packed battle that saw the south Texas-native throw over 1000 punches across 12 rounds. Figueroa dominated the first six rounds of the fight, throwing numerous combinations and taking minimal damage from his opponent.

The Mexican veteran DeMarco saved his best for the second half of the fight and was able to frequently land clean power punches against the offensive-minded Figueroa. In the 11th-round, DeMarco staggered Figueroa with a series of headshots and appeared to have him in serious trouble. Figueroa recovered enough to survive the round and win the final stanza in the eyes of all three judges.

Combined the fighters threw 1160 power punches against just 519 jabs. Figueroa landed 48 percent of his power shots while DeMarco connected on 45 percent of his. The 1092 to 587 punch output advantage for Figueroa could have proved to be the difference as he out-landed his opponent 414 to 225.

The final judges' scores were 116-112 and 115-113 twice.

In the co-featured event, Chris "The Nightmare" Arreola (37-4-1, 31 KOs) earned a split-decision victory over Travis "My Time" Kauffman (30-2, 22 KOs) in a 12-round heavyweight showdown that lived up to the pre-fight trash talk between the former sparring partners.

Arreola started out strong, winning the first two rounds on all three judges' scorecards. In the third round, Kauffman delivered a sensational combination to the head and body that put Arreola on the mat.

The knockdown slowed Arreola down as Kauffman won five rounds between rounds three and nine while displaying excellent footwork and body punching. After a low blow by Kauffman in round nine, Arreola took several minutes to recover before the referee continued the action. The extra time appeared to give Arreola a second wind as he finished strong and closed the fight with an impressive performance in the last three rounds.

The split decision was about as narrow as it could be with two judges' scoring the bout 114-113 for Arreola and the other judge with the same score for Kauffman. Arreola out-landed Kauffman 216-206 in total punches and connected on 57 percent of his power shots.

Headlining the NBCSN telecast prior, former world champion "Vicious" Victor Ortiz (31-5-2, 24 KOs) returned from a yearlong layoff to stop Gilberto Sanchez-Leon (31-15-2, 13 KOs) in the eighth round of their welterweight bout.

Ortiz was coming back from a broken wrist suffered at the end of his last bout in December 2014 and was able to land 50 percent of his power punches. The stoppage came at 2:57 into the eighth round in a bout scheduled for 10.

San Antonio-native Mario Barrios (14-0, 8 KOs) impressed in front of his hometown fans on his way to stopping Manuel Vides (18-5, 11 KOs) 31 seconds into the sixth round. Barrios showed lethal accuracy, landing 54 percent of his power punches and 46 percent of his total punches.

In NBCSN action that followed the primetime broadcast, 2012 U.S. Olympian Terrell Gausha (17-0, 8 KOs) kept his perfect record intact, defeating Said El Harrak (12-4-2, 7 KOs) in a 10-round middleweight fight. Gausha recorded a knockdown in the second round and cruised to a 100-89 decision according to all three judges.