Klimas Speaks Out On Egidijus Kavaliauskas's Malabo Fight, WBC Ranks 'Mean Machine' Again

Win or lose, it takes a lot to fuel a Mean Machine. It was the morning of his big bout in Malabo, and Egidijus Kavaliauskas of Lithuania was having a big breakfast.

Kavaliauskas is relaxed and comfortable, prepared to take on Souleymane Cissokho of France in the WBC final eliminator.

He's long been the fighter whose name sportswriters (this one included) struggle to pronounce. He's used to being the exotic one in the ring. So being in Africa, in what was the biggest fight in this part of the continent since the Rumble in the Jungle, didn't faze him at all. Both Kavaliauskas and
Egis Klimas, his manager, praised the facilities and five star treatment they received from their hosts in Equatorial Guinea. For both men, it was their first trip to Africa.

"I feel better than I did a decade ago," Kavaliauskas said at the final press conference. The morning of the fight he ate a rich and diverse breakfast that included cornflakes, hard-boiled eggs, sausages, and tropical fruits. Mount Cameroon was just then cutting through the clouds across the water on the African mainland.

The nickname "Mean Machine" reflects more than just the challenge of pronouncing his name. In the ring, he's known as a relentless pressure fighter. However, Kavaliauskas is humble and approachable outside the ring — a veritable "Kind Machine. "

In Malabo he fully believed that in a few hours, he would munch through Souleymane Cissokho as easily as his cornflakes.

It would not be so simple.

I watched Kavaliauskas take on Ramses Agaton in Maryland about a decade ago. Mean Machine scored two knockdowns in the third and finished Agaton a round later. I don't know what he had for breakfast that morning, but it worked.

"That was a great night [in Maryland]," said Egis Klimas, his manager. "You know, it took some convincing from HBO to have all those Ukrainians and Eastern Europeans on the card, but it was a great success."

Egis Klimas is an international businessman and one of the most powerful people in boxing. Like the fighters he manages, he himself climbed up the professional ranks steadily. He is a former Red Army truck driver, a pizza box maker, and always a boxing fan. His frank, workmanlike approach is a breath of fresh air in an often dirty sport.

His approach has shepherded the careers of some of the greatest fighters of the past decade, two of whom shared the stage with Mean Machine in the aforementioned 2017 card. These included Vasiliy Lomachenko who defeated Jason Sosa. In the main event the then largely unheralded Oleksandr Usyk (who stopped Michael Hunter).

Fight Day 🥊 it’s hot here in Malabo, but it will be much hotter tonight in arena #cissokhokavaliauskas #malabo pic.twitter.com/2YGZfgESrx
— Egis Klimas (@KlimasBoxing) May 10, 2025

Mean Machine got a shot at winning a world title two years after that night in Maryland. He gave everything against welterweight champion Terence Crawford, but was stopped in the ninth. Notably, Kavaliauskas appeared to drop Crawford at one point. The moment was not ruled a knockdown, though many believed it should have been.

Klimas sat just behind his corner of his fighter in Malabo in one of the larger leather chairs setup ringside. From his perspective, the fight appeared to be going well. Mean Machine dropped Cissokho in the second round. Cissokho was knocked out of the ring in the fifth round. Each time though he recovered. Klimas has access to the scores after the fourth and eighth rounds.

"I was shocked about the scoring, and I stepped into the ring to tell him the judges had us down and told him the fight on the judges' cards is slipping away from us."

The implicit urgency was apparent—he needed another knockdown to secure the win. It never came. Even as Kavaliauskas seemed to beg for his opponent to go toe-to-toe with him in the 12th round. Cissokho stuck to his game plan instead, sticking and moving. Klimas gave Cissokho a wry smile as the seconds slipped away and the final bell rang.

Klimas had come a long way to see this fight. It wasn't his only fighter boxing that weekend. That same weekend Zaur Abdullaev would lose to Raymond Muratalla with the IBF lightweight title on the line in San Diego. Klimas could have gone there easily. He lives in California. It would have involved a car ride. No shots and no passport checks at the airport.

Klimas politely congratulated the winning corner in Malabo and headed to the locker room with his fighter. Later, back at the country's iconic golf resort Sofitel, Egas found the three judges from the fight sitting together.

"I came up to all three judges and politely asked what is most important to pay attention to when scoring the fight, its footwork, hand speed, defense, [footwork] or delivering punches. They all three bowed their heads and could not answer my question," Klimas said. They were not allowed to speak on the matter.

The Lithuanian fighters' game performance may have saved something, however – in the most recent WBC welterweight rankings, Kavaliauskas has retained his position as the #4 ranked contender in the world.

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