Special Win by Magsayo at Featherweight
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 24 Jan 2022
Without necessary reference to his quality as a fighter, Mark Magsayo undoubtedly chalked up a special victory in beating American Gary Russell Jr for the WBC world featherweight title last Saturday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Magsayo became only the fourth Filipino boxer to win a major world championship at featherweight, one of boxing's original eight weight classes which with the bantamweight used to be a Waterloo division for Pinoy fighters until fairly recently.
It took special type of Pinoy fighters as Luisito Espinosa, Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire to break the jinx at 126 lbs and like Magsayo, they had to contend with and defeat also extraordinary champions for the world title, though Magsayo was luckier as his title opponent, Russell had been hobbled by what turned out as a pre-existing shoulder injury.
Espinosa had to outlast and outhustle a very active Manuel Medina in winning the Philippines first world title at 126 lbs, the WBC belt in 1995 in Tokyo, Japan where the two were adopted fighters. Pacquiao surprised an unwitting Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003 in their supposed world title fight reduced to being for the Ring Magazine belt which anyway was still recognized as the lineal world championship, forcing the Mexican corner to surrender in the penultimate round. Donaire won the WBA featherweight super championship by defeating the rugged Simphiwe Vetyeka by technical decision in 2014. The year before, Vetyeka had ended the division's modern era longest title reigns by stopping Indonesian Dragon Chris John.
These and the fact that the featherweight division had traditionally been the final destination if not the staging area for many a great fighters in boxing history including such names as Jimmy MacLarnin, Tony Canzoneri, Henry Armstrong, Alexis Arguello, Salvador Sanchez and Pacquiao himself indeed make a world title win there truly special.
How special is the featherweight? Before the institution of the super bantamweight or junior featherweight class or 122 lbs division, the featherweight represented the first major weight jump from the bantamweight or 118 lbs class, a leap of eight pounds.
Hence great fighters from the lower divisions as Eder Jofre, Fighting Harada, Ruben Olivares and Donaire himself found their ceiling at featherweight while those who started out or established themselves at 126 pounds, found the division as veritable staging area for more title conquests in the higher weight classes.
Curiously, Espinosa, Pacquiao and Donaire all started from the lower weight, as low as the flyweight before finding success at featherweight but only Pacquiao proved he could carry his power in winning more world titles in the higher weight. Manny however conceded was a very special unique case.
Magsayo catches Russell with a left during their world title fight in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.
In comparison to the three, Magsayo started his career as a full fledged featherweight.
Therefore, the challenge for Magsayo going forward is to prove that he is also a special fighter as Pacquiao and somehow Espinosa had proved themselves in their tenure at featherweight.
His first priority is to successfully defend that WBC world featherweight crown against any challenger. He would not want to be known as a flash in the pan world champion.
And as veteran sports scribe Al Mendoza reminded us recently, per the philosophy of the great Gabriel Flash Elorde, one can only truly say that he is a world boxing champion once he had successful made a title defense.
Magsayo's win at featherweight is truly special given our once long history of futility in the weight class and the division's legendary champions that included no less than Manny Pacquiao.
But the jury is still out as to how special Mark Magsayo is.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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