By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipino boxing superstar Mark Magsayo lost to American slugger Brandon Figueroa during their World Boxing Council (WBC) interim featherweight title clash via a unanimous decision last March 5, 2023, held at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
All three judges scored the bout in favor of the busier Figueroa, 118-108, while the other two had it 117-109.
It was a heartbreaking loss for the former world champion after going up in the unofficial scorecards midway through their slugfest.
Magsayo kicked off the action smoking hot as the Filipino knockout specialist went toe-to-toe with Figueroa in the first four rounds and equalized the American’s volume of punches.
Known to be a one-hit power puncher, Magsayo shifted gears during the fight and made sure that he threw the same amount of punches as Figueroa.
However, Magsayo and his camp decided to pull off a rugged and physical strategy at the start of the sixth round in an attempt to wear Figueroa down.
The plan worked at first but as the rounds went on, Magsayo gassed out which Figueroa capitalized on in the last five rounds.
To make things worse, the official match referee deducted a total of two points from Magsayo when he caught the Filipino holding Figueroa’s arms in the eighth and the 11th round.
Figueroa then started to dominate the match after throwing more punches and slowed Magsayo down with several body shots in the last three rounds.
Magsayo gave his all in the 12th round and attempted to knockout Figueroa after throwing wild hook swings but the American was wise to backpedal and rely on his jab and body blows.
“Man, I just went out there and wanted it and took the fight right to him. I wanted this fight so bad. He came back a little but once I hit him with a body shot it affected him and I put pressure, pressure, pressure on him,” said Figueroa after the fight.
With the loss, Magsayo now dropped his last two fights and lost the chance to have a rematch with Rey Vargas who snatched his WBC featherweight belt last year.
