Brandon Figueroa Defeats Mark Magsayo

Brandon Figueroa Wins Featherweight Battle in Ontario, Calif. and Other Results

All Photos by Al Applerose

By Uppercut Magazine staff

ONTARIO, Calif.-A featherweight battle between two former world titlists saw Brandon Figueroa pound his way to victory with relentless pressure and point deductions against Mark Magsayo to win the interim WBC featherweight title by unanimous decision on Saturday.

Crowds numbering more than 6,500 fans roared and cheered as Figueroa (24-1-1, 18 Kos) forced Magsayo (24-2, 18 KOs) to fight mostly inside to the delight of the fans at Toyota Arena.

Though Figueroa was slightly taller than Magsayo, he prefers to fight inside an applied constant pressure with a ramrod attack that forced the Filipino fighter to resort to continuous holding and putting his head low to avoid the blows.

Referee Tom Taylor warned Magsayo several times and finally deducted points against the Filipino slugger twice. It proved to be too much for Magsayo to overcome.

Magsayo was never in danger of being seriously hurt but he did lose steam in the last four rounds of the fight. That allowed Figueroa to take over the fight with his determined attacks. The Texan never tired.

Both warriors exchanged furiously in the 12th and final round with Magsayo tiring in the final seconds. Both made the final bell and the judges all favored Figueroa by scores 117-109 twice and 118-108.

“I felt strong at this weight,” said Figueroa. “I never tired. My conditioning was better than his.”

Middleweights

Middleweight unknown Armando Resendiz (14-1, 10 Kos) battled against former world champion Jarrett Hurd (24-3, 16 Kos) and emerged the winner by technical knockout in the 10th round when the ringside physician advised referee Ray Corona to stop the fight at 05 seconds of the round.

It was a surprising turn of events as Hurd suffered a gash on the side of his mouth that was too severed to go on according to the doctor.

Resendiz was a tremendous underdog and Hurd’s experience was expected to be too much of an advantage. But the Mexican survived uppercut after uppercut and connected with a few of his own. Both middleweights battled until the fight was stopped. Neither seemed willing to quit.

Fans loved the back and forth exchange of blows and applauded the effort of both fighters.

In another middleweight fight teenage Elijah Garcia (14-0, 12 Kos) proved that age was not a factor in defeating undefeated middleweight contender Amilcar Vidal (16-1, 12 Kos) by knockout. It was a shocking ending.

Uruguay’s Vidal was the favorite and had proven to be too strong for all of his previous middleweight opponents. He was expected to use his experience to out-manuever and defeat the Arizona fighter who is 19.

At first it looked like Vidal would break down Garcia slowly who showed poise and decent defense. But in the fourth round during an exchange Garcia caught Vidal with a right hook that staggered the Uruguyan fighter. Garcia noticed the shaky legs and immediately attacked with about a dozen blows that sank Vidal to the floor along the ropes. Referee Jack Reiss did not bother to count and waved the fight over at 2:17 of the fourth round.

“I may not have a lot of years but my dad was a fighter and my grandfather was a fighter so I got experience,” Garcia said.