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Brandon Figueroa Wins Interim WBC Featherweight Title With
Unanimous Decision Over Mark Magsayo
Photos: Marlene Marquez
In a thrilling contest between two former world champions
desperate to return to world title glory, Brandon “The
Heartbreaker” Figueroa improved round-by-round to win a
unanimous decision over Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo, capturing
the vacant Interim WBC Featherweight Title live on SHOWTIME
from Toyota Arena in Ontario, Calif. topping a Premier
Boxing Champions event.
“Man, I just went out there and wanted it and took the fight
right to him,” said Figueroa. “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.”
In a fight that didn’t appear as one-sided as the judges’
scorecards, Figueroa (24-1-1, 18 KOs) won by scores of
117-109 twice and 118-108. SHOWTIME’s Hall of Fame
unofficial scorer Steve Farhood saw the fight 114-112 in
favor of Figueroa, with two Magsayo point deductions for
holding the difference in the fight on his scorecard.
“I thought the fight was much closer than the scores
indicated,” Magsayo said. “I don’t know how to explain the
scorecards or the point deductions. It’s very disappointing.
I plan to move up to 130 pounds after this fight.”
Figueroa, who averages 92 punches thrown per round
throughout his career, was limited to 54 punches thrown per
round against Magsayo (24-2, 16 KOs). Figueroa threw 60 more
punches than Magsayo but landed three fewer punches and the
fighters were separated by more than four landed punches in
just three of the twelve rounds.
Figueroa started slowly and had to withstand Magsayo’s best
shots early in the fight, demonstrating that he has one of
the best chins in boxing. But Magsayo tired as the rounds
went on and was twice penalized for holding in rounds eight
and eleven.
Figueroa, the former 122-pound world champion, is now in
line to face WBC Featherweight World Champion Rey Vargas
next. Vargas was ringside Saturday night.
“I felt strong,” the 26-year-old native of Weslaco, Texas
said. “I just don’t stop. I don’t get tired and I’m
relentless and I came forward and I wanted the fight.
Whoever wants to fight me, I’ll fight. I want to fight for a
world title. I just want to give the fans the fights they
want.”
In a slugfest of a co-main event, power-punching Mexican
Armando Reséndiz (14-1, 10 KOs) delivered a star-making
performance, battering “Swift” Jarrett Hurd (24-3, 16 KOs)
and spoiling the former unified 154-pound world champion’s
comeback fight. The ringside physician stopped the contest
five seconds into the tenth and final round due to a severe
laceration on Hurd’s lip.
The determined Reséndiz outworked Hurd, landing 280 of his
780 punches thrown, the most connected punches of any Hurd
opponent. In the spirited middleweight scrap, Hurd had his
moments on the attack, connecting on 228 of his 562 (40
percent) punches thrown. However, Hurd, in his first fight
in 21 months, was unable to overcome Reséndiz’s pressure and
volume punching. Reséndiz landed 206 power punches,
eventually opening up a deep cut on Hurd’s lip that caused
the fight to end. At the time of the stoppage, Reséndiz was
ahead on all three judges’ scorecards.
“I was visualizing this fight for so long, how I was going
to win this fight,” Reséndiz said in the ring through
SHOWTIME interpreter Felix DeJesus. “It was all about heart,
but I know I can be even better and you’ll see what I mean
in my next fight. I told everyone I was willing to go to
war, I’m Mexican, after all. It was a strong, physical fight
just like we expected. The results speak for themselves.”
Hurd tried working his jab early, landing a total of 27 jabs
in rounds three and four, but fighting for just the third
time in over three years, Hurd faded as the rounds went on.
In rounds six through nine, Reséndiz landed 106 power
punches while limiting Hurd to 69 landed power punches.
“I knew this was going to be a tough, toe-to-to fight based
on our styles,” said the 32-year-old Hurd, who lost inside
the distance for the first time in his career. “But I only
had to make it one more round. I wish I could have finished
it, but my lip was cut too bad. So, congratulations to
Reséndiz. I definitely wish I could have continued. At no
point was I hurt at all in that fight, but I have to respect
what the doctors say and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
In the telecast opener, fast-rising teenager Elijah Garcia
(14-0, 12 KOs) rose to the occasion in a massive step-up
fight, dropping and stopping previously undefeated
middleweight contender Amilcar Vidal, Jr. (16-1, 12 KOs)
with a barrage of punches at 2:17 of the fourth round. Watch
the KO HERE.
From the opening bell, Garcia initiated a two-way action
fight that came to a sudden end when Vidal was stunned by a
right hand to the head and retreated against the ropes in
search of cover. The 19-year-old Garcia sensed he had hurt
his opponent and pounced, unleashing a flurry of punches
that dropped Vidal and forced referee Jack Reiss to stop the
fight.
“This is what everyone dreams of, so this isn’t a surprise,”
said Phoenix’s Garcia, who has now stopped six of his last
seven opponents. “This is what I worked for since I turned
pro so we’re going to keep moving forward one step at a
time.”
Through just three-and-a-half rounds of a back-and-forth
affair, both fighters were bloodied and combined for 189
punches landed and 593 punches thrown. The power punches
were the difference in the fight as Garcia landed 54 percent
of his power punches to Vidal’s 46 percent. In the fourth
round, Garcia landed 62 percent of his power punches
including the all-decisive final blows.
“I stay ready and mentally I’m strong,” Garcia continued. “I
know mentally I might have lost the first couple of rounds,
but I was breaking him down. He started backing up. He’s a
great opponent. No disrespect to him. I caught him and I
finished him. I’m not sure what I hurt him with, but I know
I hurt him and for me being 19 I have the maturity to tell
if they’re hurt or not.”
After emphatically announcing himself to the boxing world in
his national television debut, Garcia promised that his
newly earned fans would be seeing plenty more of him.
“I might become a champion before I’m 21 or 22,” he said. “I
might be ahead of schedule.”
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