Christian Mbilli battled this Terence Crawford sparring partner to a thrilling split-draw

From the opening bell of Christian Mbilli vs. Lester Martinez, both men locked themselves in the phone booth and threw away the key.

The forehead-to-forehead fireworks for a majority of the bout paved the way for Mbilli and Martinez to fight to a thrilling split-draw during the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford main card Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Judges there scored it 97-93 for Martinez, 96-94 for Mbilli and 95-95, allowing Mbilli to retain his WBC interim super middleweight world championship.

The interim titleholder came out as the aggressor and stayed that way for more than halfway through the fight, blasting Martinez with a high volume of body, head and combination punches.

But from the middle toward the end of the bout, Martinez, a sparring partner of Crawford’s, made subtle adjustments in the pocket, using spacing to pepper Mbilli with everything from slicing uppercuts to sharp counterpunches.

Those retorts helped him make the fight a lot closer.

The explosive give and take exchanges made it to the final bell, spelling the split-draw in an all-action fight that was appreciated by the Las Vegas crowd and many more boxing fans watching from home.