And it was Cardenas who ended up getting rewarded with a definitive result in what was again a solid scrap.

Four months after their first fight in the same venue, the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, judges ruled the fight in favor of Cardenas via scores of 100-90, 98-92 and 97-93.

Cardenas (18-0-2, 9 KOs) got off to a hot start with a stabbing jab and perfectly placed power shots and never looked back as he notched the decision against Martinez (16-1-1, 15 KOs).

Cardenas, trained by renowned coach Robert Garcia, consistently got the best of the exchanges by unleashing compact and concise heavy hands. Martinez maintained composure and proved he would be competitive in the clash by landing crisp counter shots and even buckled Cardenas in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough to get the win as he fizzled in the second half of the 10-round fight.

CompuBox credited Cardenas with unofficially landing 184 of 676 punches and Martinez with 125 of 465. But it was Cardenas who dictated the pace to clearly separate himself, never allowing Martinez to mount any semblance of momentum.

The original installment featured incredible action, and judges scored the 10-round contest 98-92 for Martinez, 96-94 for Cardenas, while a third had it 95-95. Martinez was credited with landing 187 punches in the firefight, and Martinez with 169.

Martinez, a 23-year-old local favorite from Phoenix, parlayed the earlier performance into a promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing and a rematch, but couldn’t replicate the same success he pulled off in the first installment.

The fight on Saturday served as the co-main event for the Matchroom Boxing show on DAZN headlined by Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez’s quest to become a three-division champion against WBA bantamweight titleholder Antonio Vargas.

The undercard also featured a firefight in which IBF lightweight champion Elif Nur Turhan successfully defended her title against Gabriela Tellez.

All three judges ruled the spirited slugfest in favor of Turhan via scores of 96-94. Turhan consoled the devastated Tellez after the close fight concluded, which could have arguably gone either way.

Unofficial punch stats provided by CompuBox credited Turhan with landing 75 of 345 punches and Tellez with 100 of 276 in a back-and-forth brawl that featured plenty of action and swing rounds.

Turhan (14-0, 8 KOs), a 31-year-old from Istanbul, Turkey, brought her entertaining style to the states for the first time and came in with tremendous momentum after winning the IBF title by stopping Beatriz Ferreira in December and quickly defending her belt in January with a split decision win against Taylah Gentzen.

Tellez (7-1, 3 KOs), a 19-year-old from San Antonio, trained by Jose Benavidez Sr., catapulted herself to a world title shot after turning pro in July 2024 and proved she was more than ready for the occasion despite falling short in a hotly contested clash.

The DAZN-streamed card kicked off with a local derby featuring two unbeaten sons from The Grand Canyon State squaring off in a 10-round junior welterweight clash.

Phoenix's Elias Terraza (14-0, 9 KOs) dropped Glendale's Adrian Rodriguez (10-1, 6 KOs) in the second round with a combination capped by a big right hand and stopped him with a flurry soon after in the same stanza, forcing referee Chris Flores to stop the action at the 2:30 mark.

Terraza outlanded Rodriguez 40 to 12 in the fight.