NEW YORK – Vito Mielnicki Jr. extended his winning streak to five Saturday night.

The 20-year-old junior middleweight mostly controlled his 10-round fight against Limberth Ponce with his jab, both to Ponce’s head and body, and recorded a unanimous-decision victory at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Mielnicki clearly won by wide distances – 99-91, 99-91 and 98-92 – on the Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius undercard.

Mielnicki (13-1, 8 KOs), of Roseland, New Jersey, has won five fights in a row since Philadelphia’s James Martin (then 6-2) upset him by majority decision in an eight-rounder in April 2021 at Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles.

The Mexican-born Ponce (19-6, 11 KOs), of Rock Island, Illinois, has lost two of his past three fights. Two fights ago, Joey Spencer (16-0, 10 KOs), a junior middleweight prospect from Linden, Michigan, knocked out the 31-year-old Ponce in the fifth round last December 25 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Mielnicki blasted Ponce with a rare flush right hand when there were just over 50 seconds to go in their fight. Ponce caught Mielnicki with two right hands and a left in an exchange toward the end of the final round, but Mielnicki waved him forward.

There was more back and forth action in the final minute of their bout than at any other point in it.

Mielnicki connected with a right hand barely 40 seconds into the eighth round before going back to pumping his jab.

Mielnicki continued to work off his jab and occasionally caught Ponce with right hands as his shorter opponent pressed forward in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.

A right hand by Mielnicki caught Ponce with just under 20 seconds on the clock in the third round.

Mielnicki knocked Ponce off balance with a left hook toward the end of an otherwise uneventful second round. Mielnicki tried to establish his jab during the first round, when Ponce didn’t throw many punches.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.