CARSON, California – Egidijus Kavaliauskas almost overwhelmed Mykal Fox in the third round Saturday night.

The rugged welterweight contender floored Fox twice during that round and appeared well on his way to a knockout win over the tall, rangy southpaw. A resilient Fox somehow managed to avoid getting dropped again, though, and took Kavaliauskas the 10-round distance on the Sebastian Fundora-Carlos Ocampo undercard at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Judges Jerry Cantu (99-89), Ivan Guillermo (98-90) and Ralph McKnight (100-88) all scored Kavaliauskas a wide winner in a bout that headlined Showtime’s coverage on its YouTube channel.

Kavaliauskas (23-2-1, 18 KOs) didn’t get the knockout he sought, but his decisive victory over a skillful fighter helped the Lithuanian contender rebuild some momentum following losses in two of his three previous fights to unbeaten WBO welterweight champ Terence Crawford and hard-hitting, undefeating contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. The 34-year-old Kavaliauskas ended nearly a 14-month layoff, as he hadn’t boxed since Ortiz dropped him five times and stopped him late in the eighth round of their August 2021 fight at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

Fox (22-4, 5 KOs), of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, fought for the first time since his highly controversial, 12-round, unanimous-decision loss to Venezuela’s Gabriel Maestre (4-0-1, 3 KOs) in August 2021 at The Armory in Minneapolis.

After suffering two knockdowns during the third round, Fox moved his head more and avoided getting hurt by Kavaliauskas in any of the seven subsequent rounds. Fox used his legs well in each of those rounds to better deal with Kavaliauskas’ pressure than he did during the second and third rounds.

Kavaliauskas didn’t land many flush punches during any of those final seven rounds. Fox didn’t do much offensively in rounds four through 10, either, but he avoided what would’ve been the first knockout defeat of his career.

Kavaliauskas clipped Fox with a right hand on the inside that hurt him a little less than 50 seconds into the third round. Fox tried to move out of Kavaliauskas’ punching range, but Kavaliauskas followed him and landed another short right that sent Fox to the seat of his trunks with 2:04 remaining in the third round.

Fox took a deep breath and reached his feet. He tried to hold Kavaliauskas, but Kavaliauskas landed a right uppercut and a left hand a few seconds later that dropped Fox again with 1:39 on the clock in the third round.

It appeared Kavaliauskas might finish Fox in that third round, but Fox craftily survived his way to the fourth round.

A flush right hand by Kavaliauskas caused Fox to stumble and hold him tight with about 20 seconds to go in the second round.

Kavaliauskas caught Fox with a right-left combination a few seconds before the bell sounded to end the first round. Several seconds earlier, Kavaliauskas landed a left-right combination that made Fox move away from him.

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