But more often than not, and often enough, Josh Torres had the last word.

Albuquerque’s Torres, counterpunching effectively throughout the six-round welterweight bout, defeated Aztec’s Joe Gomez by split decision Friday night in the main event of a five-bout professional boxing card at the YDI Wool Warehouse. A crowd estimated at 350 attended the show.

Torres improved his record to 8-2-1 with four knockouts. Gomez is 18-7-1, with five KOs.

The back-and-forth nature of the fight was reflected in the judges’ scorecards. One judge favored Gomez 59-55, another scored it for Torres by the same score. The tie-breaking card had Torres ahead, 58-56.

Afterward, Torres said he felt it was his fight all the way.

“I thought I was able to slip his jab and counter with my right hand,” the Albuquerquean said. “I don’t feel like I ever had him out of the fight; he was a tough guy. He was there in my face the whole time. He never backed up the whole time; it was a good fight.”

Torres said he felt he landed “the cleaner punches, the harder shots,” throughout the fight.

Gomez said he had no problem with the decision.

“It was a good fight,” he said. “It could have gone his way; it could have gone my way.”

Gomez said the shorter Torres wasn’t as aggressive as he’d expected him to be. “I was the aggressor the whole fight. … I showed him I could go toe to toe with him. … Hopefully we can get a rematch; that would be nice.

“I should have done a little more.”

The late Johnny Tapia, Torres’ trainer and mentor, was renowned as a counterpuncher — invariably getting in the last clean shot in an exchange.

Friday, Torres managed on a fairly consistent basis to answer a Gomez punch with a cleaner shot of his own.

“If I’d taken more of those shots he probably would have knocked me down or taken me out, because he has a lot of power for his size,” Torres said. “But I was able to counter effectively and (avoid) a lot of his shots.”

Torres appeared to carry the first two rounds with crisp counterpunching, but Gomez picked up the pace in the third, keeping the Albuquerquean on the defensive.

“To be honest,” Torres said, “I thought I took the third round off more so than him picking it up.

“I was aware of that, so I came back harder in the fourth and fifth. Then I finished strong in the sixth, which I felt was the difference for me.”

The fourth was a pick ‘em round, both fighters scoring well, but Torres landed the harder, cleaner shots in the fifth.

Both fighters went all out for victory in the sixth. Torres’ counter shots might have given him an edge.

In a rousing semi-main event, junior middleweight Arturo Crespin 7-2-1 of Las Vegas, N.M., defeated Albuquerque’s Nazareth Rojas (6-7-1, 2 KOs) by unanimous decision over six rounds.

Rojas appeared to hurt Crespin with body shots in a dominant second round. But the faster-handed Crespin fought through the pain and fatigue.

The judges’ scores were 58-56, 59-55 and 59-55.

In other bouts:

♦ In an exciting four-round junior lightweight bout, Roswell’s John Herrera defeated Santa Fe’s Antonio Garcia by TKO with just 24 seconds left in the fight. Herrera is 3-3-1, with one knockout. Garcia is 1-2.

Garcia threw more punches and perhaps landed more, but Herrera consistently found a home for his left hook. He dropped Garcia with a left in the fourth, then finished him with an all-out assault that prompted referee Rocky Burke to stop the fight.

♦ Albuquerque heavyweight Fernando Reyes (2-1) defeated Roswell’s Guto Feliciano (pro debut) via four-round decision. The judges’ scores were 40-35, 39-36 and 39-36. Reyes, who at 270 outweighed Feliciano by more than 50 pounds, scored a flash knockdown in the fourth.

♦ Albuquerque’s Cristian Cabral (4-0, 3 knockouts) scored a victory by second-round technical decision over Roswell’s Michael Herrera.

After Herrera suffered a cut over his left eye during an action-packed second round, the ring doctor determined that Herrera could not safely continue.

Promoter Joe Chavez said he has two future cards planned — one at the Convention Center and another at the Wool Warehouse.