Mauricio Herrera vs. Jose Benavidez Jr.: Winner, Scorecard and Analysis

Controversy has once again reared its head for a Mauricio Herrera (21-5) bout. On Saturday night from The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Herrera lost a unanimous decision and his interim WBA light welterweight title to Jose Benavidez Jr. (22-0).

HBO Boxing has the official judges' scorecards.

Depending on who you listen to, the judges' scorecards were either an outrage or a little too wide. Here's how a host of prominent members of the boxing community scored the bout, including Eric Raskin of Grantland, Steve Karp of The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Daniel Roberts of Deadspin, Adam Abramowitz of Saturday Night Boxing and Mario Ruiz of The Max and Marcellus Show.

Even those who did score the fight for Benavidez didn't have it as drastically in his favor as the official judges.

Early on, the 34-year-old Herrera established work to the body. These shots seemed to take a lot of steam away from Benavidez as the fight wore on. He began to seemingly give away rounds by retreating to the ropes, and he allowed Herrera to throw 223 more punches over the course of the fight.

In the final five rounds, both men seemed fatigued and fought in spurts. Judges were tasked with deciding which fighter's segment of action was most impressive. Apparently, the three judges liked Benavidez's work more.

Usually, a fighter that throws that many more punches and lands more will win the judges' decision. That wasn't the case on Saturday.

In Benavidez's defense, the 22-year-old did appear to land the harder shots, and Herrera's face had more damage at the end of the fight. 

In the final round, the two men bombed away in the middle of the ring for the final 15 seconds of the bout. It was a thrilling end to an action-packed fight. Unfortunately, it may be remembered for the decision rather than the action.

HBO's Jim Lampley suggested that perhaps the judges simply didn't recognize or see the work Herrera was doing to the body. Truth be told, if you subtracted or reduced the amount of shots Herrera landed to Benavidez's midsection, it would seem as if Benavidez had landed the more significant shots.

Whatever the case, Herrera came up short where it counted most.

This type of occurrence is nothing new for him. Many believe he was robbed when he lost a majority decision to Danny "Swift" Garcia in March. In Herrera's last fight, he won a majority decision over Johan Perez, but some thought he should have won more decisively.

Because of Herrera's style and lack of punching power, his fights are usually tough to score—or at least difficult to come to a consensus decision on. That proved to be the case again on Saturday.

It's hard to say where he goes from here. One can only imagine his frustration. He's not going to suddenly become a big puncher. As long as he fights, these will likely be the types of decisions he's faced with.

As for Benavidez, the highly touted young fighter now has his first piece of meaningful championship gold. It's not a legitimate world title, but it's a strong step in that direction. Some will clamor for a rematch. But the fact is, Herrera isn't much of a draw, and Top Rank Boxing undoubtedly has big plans for Benavidez.

Perhaps a fight against WBO champion Chris Algieri or a bout against Ruslan Provodnikov could help push Benavidez to the next level. While the decision may not have been to everyone's liking, Benavidez did do well in his first big fight against a formidable opponent.

Even if he had lost, this bout would have been considered a plus for his career. With the official win under his belt, he's ready for the next challenge.

Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter. I dig boxing and MMA.