Mark Magsayo falters in WBC interim title bid vs Brandon Figueroa

Referee Thomas Taylor raises the hand of Brandon Figueroa (left) after the announcement of the winner in a fight against Mark Magsayo (right) for the WBC interim world featherweight title. | Photo from Showtime Boxing.

CEBU CITY, Philippines— Boholano and former world champion Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo faltered in his bid to win the World Boxing Council (WBC) interim world featherweight title against Brandon “The Heartbreaker” Figueroa via unanimous decision on Saturday (Sunday Manila Time) at the Toyota Center in Ontario, California.

The defeat means that Magsayo’s chance of reasserting himself as a world champion will be back to the drawing board.

Judges Gary Ritter and Fernando Villareal scored the bout 117-109, while Zachary Young had the bout 118-108, all in favor of the 26-year-old former WBC and WBO world super bantamweight champion.

With the victory, Figueroa improved his record to 24 wins with 18 knockouts, one defeat, and one draw.

On top of that, he earned a world title shot against the reigning WBC world featherweight king Rey Vargas who unseated Magsayo as the title holder in July 2022 in Texas via a split decision.

Meanwhile, it’s the second straight defeat for Magsayo, 27, of Tagbilaran City Bohol. He dropped to a 24-2 (win-loss) record with 16 knockouts.

Magsayo displayed dominance over Figueroa in the early rounds by banking on solid counterpunches. Magsayo perfectly landed his combinations and timely straights in the early rounds that forced Figueroa to up his guard.

However, midway into the fight, Figueroa slowly shifted the momentum by putting more pressure on Magsayo and bringing the fight to close quarters.

Figueroa succeeded with his plans of taking the fight toe-to-toe against Magsayo. He landed the cleaner punches and was able to pin Magsayo numerous times against the ropes.

While struggling with Figueroa’s aggressiveness, Magsayo got deducted two points in the fight for excessive holding from referee Thomas Taylor.

Magsayo suffered his first point deduction in the eighth round for not heeding Taylor’s warning for excessively holding Figueroa’s right arm.

In the 11th round, Taylor again deducted another point for Magsayo for the same reason.

With a sense of desperation, Magsayo unloaded a combination to have a rousing start in the final round.

However, Figueroa quickly answered Magsayo with his own barrage of punches.

Both boxers had a furious exchange in the final ten seconds, putting the crowd on their feet.

The two-point deduction against Magsayo was a huge factor in his defeat. In the unofficial scorecards from the judges, both boxers won five rounds each.

However, Figueroa gained a huge lead in the scorecards after the deductions.

In terms of punches landed, Magsayo landed 179 over Figueroa’s 176.

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