CARSON, California – Edward Vazquez got off to a strong start Saturday and fended off Viktor Slavinskyi’s rally to score a much-needed, split-decision win in their eight-round junior lightweight fight.

Vazquez (13-1, 3 KOs), of Fort Worth, Texas, tired toward the end of their bout, but two judges still scored their competitive fight for him on the Sebastian Fundora-Carlos Ocampo undercard at Dignity Health Sports Park. Rudy Barragan (78-74) and Ralph McKnight (79-73) scored Vazquez the winner, but Pat Russell credited Slavinskyi with a narrower win (77-75).

The 27-year-old Vazquez has won back-to-back bouts since suffering his lone professional loss – a 10-round split decision to Raymond Ford on February 5 at Footprint Center in Phoenix.

Ukraine’s Slavinskyi (13-2-1, 6 KOs) lost a second straight bout. In his prior appearance, the Dominican Republic’s Claudio Marrerro (26-5, 18 KOs) beat him by majority decision in an eight-rounder February 26 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

Slavinskyi was very active throughout the seventh and eighth rounds, when he landed left hands more regularly than in previous rounds. Vazquez appeared tired by that point in the bout and had more difficulty fended

A flush left hook by Vazquez in an exchange stopped Slavinskyi in his tracks early in the sixth round. Vazquez landed a right hand that moved Slavinskyi backward several seconds later.

Slavinskyi caught Vazquez with a straight left as he moved backward later in the sixth round.

Vazquez’s right hand knocked Slavinskyi off balance near the end of the fifth round.

Vazquez defended himself well for most of the fourth round, but Slavinskyi snuck in a couple of left hands toward the end of it that got Vazquez’s attention.

Slavinskyi applied pressure for much of the third round, but Vazquez often countered him with short shots and picked off Slavinskyi’s punches with his gloves.

Two right hands by Vazquez made Slavinskyi stumble backward with just over 1:45 to go in the second round. Slavinskyi went down with just over 50 seconds to go in the second round, but Corona rightly ruled that Slavinskyi’s left left slipped out from under him.

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