Brandon Figueroa overcomes slow start to beat Mark Magsayo and claim shot at WBC Featherweight title
- Planet Sport writer
- 5 March 2023
Brandon “The Heartbreaker” Figueroa prevailed by unanimous decision in a closely-fought encounter against Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo for the vacant Interim WBC Featherweight Title.
Things did not go all Figueroa's way, though. Magsayo looked to be much stronger at the start of the bout and had him under a lot of pressure in the early rounds.
However, he grew into the fight well and got better and better as the rounds wore on while Magsayo began to clearly tire.
The result was a match that wasn't nearly as one-sided as the unanimous judges' scorecards would suggest. Figueroa prevailed with scores of 117-109 (twice) and 118-108 to improve his record to 24-1-1 with 18 knockouts.
"Man, I just went out there and wanted it and took the fight right to him," Figueroa afterwards.
"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."
The win puts him in line to take on WBC Featherweight World Champion Rey Vargas, who was in attendance to see him beat Magsayo.
