Souleymane Cissokho had to do things the hard way in his 12-round WBC eliminator with Egidijus Kavaliauskas, but he ultimately came out on top by unanimous decision after surviving two knockdowns.

Cissokho (18-0, 9 KOs) is now the mandatory challenger for Mario Barrios' WBC welterweight title after leaving the Centre de Conference de Sipopo in Equatorial Guinea with scorecards of 114-112, 115-111 and 116-110 in his favour.

The first round was typically cautious from both men, but the action burst into life in the second as Lithuanian Kavaliauskas (24-3-1, 19 KOs), a former world title challenger to Terence Crawford, landed a left hook which sent his opponent to the canvas.

Now that Frenchman Cissokho had felt Kavaliauskas' power, it was time to box and move. The third and fourth rounds proved to be more successful for Cissokho, who managed to offset his foe's onslaughts with crisp counter-jabs.

Once again, however, Cissokho found himself in a sticky situation just a round later in the fifth. This time it was the arena floor he would make contact with, not the canvas.

With Kavaliauskas forcing the issue, safe in the knowledge that his pressure was doing the job it intended: to unsettle Cissokho just like it did three rounds earlier, the second knockdown came.

A vicious left uppercut from Kavaliauskas snapped Cissokho's head back, and as the Senegalese-born Olympian ducked to evade further damage he slipped between the bottom two ropes and down to the floor below.

Still, Cissokho, for all of his defensive lapses, would not be denied. Back he stepped into the ring to survive the rest of the round before resetting for the second half of the fight.

The seventh and eighth rounds were tricky and twitchy for Cissokho to deal with, but he came out of them unscathed. The ninth round proved to be a stronger one for the pre-fight favourite, who moved around a laboured Kavaliauskas to land rights and lefts of his own.

Kavaliauskas, whose pressure had severely diminished, had more of Cissokho's movement and jabbing to deal with in the 10th and 11th stanzas.

In the final round, Kavaliauskas made a last-ditch effort to trouble his opponent for a third time, but Cissokho held on to pick up the most important win of his career yet.

Though he's next in line for Barrios' 147-pound title, he'll have to wait a few months at least as the Mexican-American is set to face Manny Pacquiao in the Filipino legend's return bout on July 19 in Las Vegas.