“It happened, I smiled about it and got up.”

Cardenas overcame the first knockdown of his career, outpointing a determined Bryan Acosta by unanimous decision Saturday at the Boeing Center at Tech Port in the main event of a ProBox TV broadcast.

Two judges had Cardenas ahead by a point, 95-94, in the 10-round junior featherweight bout, while the third had Cardenas winning by the score of 97-92. The win raised Cardenas’ record to 26-1 (14 KOs), while Acosta lost for the first time, dropping to 20-1 (8 KOs).

Cardenas, who was fighting in his hometown of San Antonio again after two straight fights in Florida, had the technical advantage over his taller opponent early on, using his jab to keep Acosta off balance. He made the first statement of the fight in Round 1, rocking Acosta with a counter right hand when Acosta over-committed with his jab.

Acosta, although coming down in weight after fighting exclusively at 126lbs, turned up the aggression in Round 2 but continued to eat right hand counters for his trouble. Cardenas followed the advice of his trainer, Joel Diaz, in Round 3, staying low and looking for the left hook to the body, which worked to set up left hooks upstairs. With three rounds in the bag and Cardenas looking like the physically stronger fighter, he began to back up Acosta in hopes of breaking his opponent down.

While Cardenas landed big punches that pushed Acosta to the ropes, he also gave Acosta the opportunity to land punches of his own for the first time in the fight.

Perhaps realizing that Acosta, an unbeaten but untested fighter from Hermosillo, Mexico, had more fight in him, Cardenas reverted to boxing in the fifth round. Cardenas made another big statement in Round 6, with a jab to the body that opened up a right hand upstairs, once again hinting that Acosta may be ready to go.

That’s when, as Cardenas puts it, his boredom with the monotony of the fight caused him to lose focus and drop his guard.

Cardenas appeared more embarrassed than hurt when the hook dropped him, but Acosta continued to pile on the punishment, keeping the pressure on nonstop. Cardenas appeared more hurt later in the round when a right hand followed by a left hook caused him to wobble. Instead of listening to his trainer’s instructions to hold, he followed his instincts to fight, with mixed results.

After another round mostly controlled by Acosta’s activity in the eighth, Cardenas began to find counterpunch opportunities with his left hook in the ninth and tenth. By this point, Cardenas was mostly looking for one big punch at a time while Acosta looked to throw combinations.

The two traded punches up to the bell, bringing the San Antonio crowd to a roar.

Afterwards, the 29-year-old Cardenas said he learned an important lesson.

“It just showed me not to get lazy. I could have outclassed this guy, easy,” said Cardenas, who is rated No. 2 by the WBA at 122lbs.

“Just shows me not to get reckless, to listen to my coaches, to keep my left hand up and not to get bored.”

Cardenas says that, if he had his way, he would like to challenge the top fighter in the division – undisputed champion Naoya Inoue. Whether he can get that fight or not, he says he wants to remain busy against top opposition.

“I want to fight another top fighter,” said Cardenas, who says he hurt his right hand in the fight. “I don’t want to take back steps, I don’t want to get another guy that I can just run over and knock this guy out in the first couple of rounds and go home.

“Inoue is the best, and I want to fight him. If I can get him this year, I’m ready for it. I want to fight the best.”

Acosta, 26, says that his plan is to move back up to 126lbs, where he is rated No. 14 by the IBF.

“This fight gives me more confidence in my career, because in a weight class that is not my weight class, I’m bringing this fight with a top-level fighter,” Acosta said. “So in my weight class I’m going to do a better job.”

Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.