Ponce de Leon, campaigning as a featherweight over the last couple of years and in hot pursuit of a match-up against WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez, once more stepped up in weight for the Lazcano assignment. Looking better with his technique while moving forward, Ponce de Leon set the pace since the onset.

Throwing straighter punches, uppercuts and his trademark, the vaunted straight left, had Lazcano covering for most of the time. Once in a while, he let a wild haymaker fly, at times catching Ponce de Leon, who easily adjusted to the shots. Ponce de Leon reset and came back with what seemed to be in the neighborhood of a hundred punches a round.

Lazcano, 24-3 (11), was never in any serious danger. Although banged to the body often, the Ciudad Juarez native proved a tough cookie by staying in the pocket as Ponce de Leon showcased a variety of punches from all angles all night, which had the flat-nosed Lazcano bleeding after the eighth round.

With the win, Ponce de Leon moved his record to 43-4 with 35 KOs.

This, the second start of the year for Ponce de Leon (the first being a sixth round KO in January over Omar Estrella), netted him the vacant WBC USNBC super featherweight title.