Consider "Mean Machine" recalibrated and back in the hunt for a world title shot.
Egidijus Kavaliauskas blasted Mikael Zewski with an eighth-round knockout at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas on Saturday night. After dropping Zewski with a flurry of punches during the waning seconds of the seventh round, Kavaliauskas ended the bout by wrapping a right hook around the guard and directly on Zewski's chin seven seconds into the eighth to secure the KO.
After the fight, Kavaliauskas lobbied on ESPN+ for a rematch with WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, contending that he's still the best possible opponent out there for "Bud."
The 32-year-old found himself in a firefight with heavy swelling under his right eye and trailing on two of the three judges' scorecards when he unleashed instant offense during the end of the seventh round and early in the eighth.
Looking simply effective, yet far from dominant, Kavaliauskas changed everything in a flash when he planted a picture-perfect right uppercut under Zewski's chin during the waning seconds of the seventh. With Zewski wobbled from the shot, Kavaliauskas swarmed him and unloaded a flurry of punches until his opponent tasted the canvas. Zewski beat the count at nine and survived the round, but the end was near.
Kavaliauskas made sure of that by unleashing the right hook that rocked Zewski across the jaw for another knockdown — this one getting the KO.
"I wanted to do it faster," Kavaliauskas said of registering the win by knockout, "but it happened."
It sure did and now Kavaliauskas (22-1-1, 18 KOs) inches one step closer to a possible world title shot, with the Lithuanian boxer hoping it comes against Crawford. Kavaliauskas suffered his first and only pro loss to Crawford in December via ninth-round TKO. However, he recorded a knockdown of the world champ during the third round of that fight, although it was ruled as a controversial slip by the referee.
Co-main event: Joet Gonzalez thoroughly dominates Miguel Marriaga by unanimous decision; Featherweight
With a relentless attack, Gonzalez kept Marriaga backpedaling for a bulk of their 10-round clash, wobbling him with a left hook for good measure during the final round. The end result was Gonzalez (24-1, 14 KOs) rightfully winning by a rather wide margin (99-91, 99-91, 97-93), as the Mexican fighter bounced back into the win column following his first pro loss against Shakur Stevenson in October.