Brandon Figueroa (24-1-1, 18 KOs) took the high road in reacting to his angry opponent Mark Magsayo (24-2, 16 KOs), who was displeased with the scoring and his two-point deductions for holding in his 12 round unanimous decision loss on Saturday night at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Former IBF/WBC super bantamweight champion Figueroa says Magsayo was “scared” to fight him on the inside, and it sure seemed that way.
With the amount of holding & falling down that Magsayo was doing, he was falling apart from the body punching in the championship rounds.
Figueroa, 26, showed close in diffusing the angry comments by the former WBC featherweight champion Magsayo by saying that the fight was a close affair. Brandon said he felt the two point deductions for holding hurt Magsayo and was the difference in the fight.
The judges scored it wide for Figueroa with the scores 117-109, 117-109, and 118-108.
Only Magsayo knows why he held as much as he did in the fight, because Figueroa feels that he was doing it because he was bothered by the body punching he was doing.
“As soon as I got on the inside, he was shelling up really quick, meaning he was scared to fight me on the inside, which allowed me to put more pressure, and I noticed that he was missing a lot of shots. He was getting me with little flurries,” said Brandon Figueroa at the post-fight press conference, discussing his win over Mark Magsayo.
“You can tell by a fighter’s demeanor when they’re gassed out and exhausted. Right away, when you see an opponent falling down that easily, that means he’s showing you that he doesn’t want to fight. It means he had no gas, he had no legs.
“It means he was just fighting on will. I felt I had more will than him tonight. I wanted to win the fight so bad, and I wanted a belt, and here I am.
“He had good pop, and he moved pretty good. Me and my team knew he’d come out strong, fast, and sharp and try to catch me. I just had to be patient and box him, and keep my distance and pick him to the body.
“Once I saw that I damaged him to the body, I just got to the inside and just worked him,” said Figueroa. “I thought it was a close fight, but I knew for a fact that with the point deductions and me overwhelming him for most of the fight paid big dividends for that.
“He’s a tall fighter, and my job is to be the aggressor as always,” said Figuerora about his desire to challenge Rey Vargas next for his WBC featherweight title. “Just to take the fight right too him. Hopefully,” said Figueroa when asked if he wants to fight Vargas next.
