LAS VEGAS – Carlos Cuadras continued his climb back Saturday night toward another super flyweight world title fight.

The former WBC 115-pound champion edged feisty fellow Mexican Jose Maria Cardenas by majority decision in their 10-round bout on the Tyson Fury-Otto Wallin undercard at T-Mobile Arena. The taller, rangier Cardenas did damage when his right hand landed, as Cuadras fought through significant swelling beneath his left eye during the second half of their fight.

The crafty Cuadras (39-3-1, 27 KOs) didn’t appear to hurt Cardenas at any point and fought off his back foot almost the entire fight.

Two judges – Tim Cheatham and Lisa Giampa – scored the fight for Cuadras by the same score, 96-94. Judge Adalaide Byrd scored the action even (95-95).

The win was the 31-year-old Cuadras’ third straight following a 10-round, majority-decision defeat to McWilliams Arroyo in February 2018. Tijuana’s Cardenas (17-5, 14 KOs) has lost three of his past four fights.

Cuadras didn’t look like the same fighter that lost 12-round unanimous decisions to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada, both elite-level super flyweights when they beat Cuadras in September 2016 and September 2017, respectively. He was savvy enough, though, to get this victory Saturday night.

A sweeping left hook by Cuadras caught Cardenas just before the midway mark of the 10th round. Cardenas took that flush punch well and continued as the aggressor until the final bell.

Cuadras nailed Cardenas with a flush left hook very late in the ninth round. Cardenas shook his head and kept coming forward.

A right-left combination by Cardenas knocked Cuadras backward about a minute into the eighth round. Cardenas continued pressing the action for the remainder of that eighth round and appeared to gain confidence from his success in those three minutes.

Cardenas drilled Cuadras with a straight right hand when there were about 50 seconds to go in the sixth round. Cuadras caught Cardenas with his own hard right hand later in the sixth.

Cuadras often moved out of Cardenas’ punching range and landed many more punches than Cardenas during the first four rounds. Cardenas had a strong start to the fifth round, but Cuadras came back to slow him down during its second half.

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