FIGUEROA BEATS MAGSAYO BY UD
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 05 Mar 2023
Brandon Figueroa defeated Mark Magsayo via unanimous decision at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California Saturday night (Sunday in Manila) to get the right to fight reigning world champion Rey Vargas. Judges scores: Gary Ritter and Fernando Villareal had it 117-109 and Zachary Young 118-108 all for Figueroa. Philboxing had it 114-112 for Figueroa. Magsayo has been deducted a total of two points by Referee Thomas Taylor for excessive holding.
Magsayo piled up points in the first half of the fight by good counter punching and eye-popping combinations when he was fighting in the middle of the ring. Figueroa uncharacteristically started boxing in the first two rounds but reverted to his usual pressure style beginning in the third round where he was able to drive Magsayo to the ropes.
Magsayo appeared to be beginning to tire in the middle rounds and resorted to holding to stop Figueroa's smothering offense where he was warned by Referee Taylor a couple of times. In the 8th round Taylor finally deducted Magsayo a point for holding and again in the 11th round as the Filipino was gasping for breath. Magsayo also dropped to the canvas several times throughout the fight as he was pushed by Figueroa down when Magsayo tried to stay very close to Figueroa's body to prevent the Mexican-American to throw his punches.
Magsayo absorbs the 2nd loss of his career (22-2-0, 16KOs) and badly needs to improve on his stamina going forward to be in the mix with the best fighters in the division.
Figueroa (24-1-1, 18KOs) now looks forward to fighting Rey Vargas for another shot of the title in the another division.
In the co-main event, 24-year-old Jose Armando Resendiz of Nayarit, Mexico dished out a star-making performance by stopping former unified world champion Jarrett Hurd in the 10th round in their 10-round scheduled middleweight battle.
From the getgo, Hurd and Resendiz fought in a riveting close quarter combat where both fighters give as well as take tremendous avalanche of punches in a variety of fashion - crosses, straights, uppercuts, combinations to the head and body. In the later rounds however, it was Resendiz who continued the the amazing work rate without let up as Hurd seemed to fade. Additionally Hurd's lip was busted that eventually caused the stoppage of the fight as the 10th and final round started.
Resendiz (now 14-1-0, 10KOs) threw an astonishing 780 punches after nine rounds with 280 punches connected to Hurd's 562 punches thrown with 228 connected.
Hurd, the former unified IBF, IBO WBA superwelter champion, sustained his third loss and dropped to 24-3-0, 16KOs.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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