Brandon “The Heartbreaker” Figueroa (24-1-1, 18 KOs) used his superior work rate and skills to defeat Mark Magsayo (24-2, 16 KOs) by a fairly one-sided 12 round unanimous decision to win the WBC interim featherweight title on Saturday night in their main event fight at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Figueroa, 26, used body punching and volume punching to wear down the constantly holding former WBC featherweight champion Magsayo.
The referee got tired of all the holding that Magsayo was using during the fight, and as a result, he twice penalized him, once in the eighth and another time in the eleventh.
While some boxing fans might have an issue with the referee taking points off for what many fighters routinely use to neutralize their opponent’s offense, it balanced tonight because could have taken off three points from Magsayo for going down several times in the later rounds to escape punishment. Those should have been knockdowns, but the referee gave Magsayo a huge break.
The scores:
Undercard action
In a real shocker, young unknown Armando Resendiz (14-1, 10KO) stopped former IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd (24-3, 16KO) in the tenth round in their co-feature bout.
The fight was stopped at the beginning of round ten after the ringside doctor examined the 32-year-old Hurd’s bleeding lip and recommended that the fight be stopped. The time of the stoppage was at 0:05 of the tenth.
Starting slowly like he always does, Hurd was outworked and beaten to the punch by the 24-year-old Resendiz through the first four rounds of the contest.
In the fifth, Hurd began to land big punches, but Resendiz took the shots well and continued to land steadily, not showing signs of letting up.
Obviously, Resendiz’s trainer had put together an excellent game plan of throwing a lot of punches and working Hurd, who has a reputation for wearing down his opponents with unrelenting pressure.
Hurd began to fade by the sixth round, as Resendiz was too busy for him to keep up, and he was starting to get worn down.
Rather than trying to match Resendiz’s high work rate, Hurd seemed to be focusing on stopping him, which wasn’t going to work. Resendiz was too amped up, and he wouldn’t be taken out by a big shot.
By the ninth round, Hurd looked like an awful sight, with his face badly puffed up and blood coming out of his mouth in rivers.
Resendiz was teeing off on the hurt & exhausted Hurd in that round, hitting him at will, and it was clear by the end of the round that the fight needed to be stopped soon.
At the beginning of the tenth, Hurd was examined by the ringside doctor, and the fight was promptly halted due to the cut lip.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Hurd chooses to fight on after this loss or retire. He’s lost his last two fights and three out of his previous four against fighters that aren’t world champions.
In an impressive performance, 19-year-old middleweight prospect Elijah Garcia (14-0, 12 KOs) scored a spectacular fourth round knockout over the game but limited Amilcar Vidal (16-1, 12 KOs) from Uruguay.
Garcia wore down and dropped Vidal in the fourth round. The fight was then halted shortly after by referee Jack Reiss at 2:17 of the round.
Junior middleweight Terrell Gausha (23-3-1, 12 KOs) put in a beautiful performance, knocking out Brandyn Lynch (12-2-1, 9 KOs) in the ninth round in their 10 round scheduled special feature attraction.
Coming off a one-year layoff and a loss to Tim Tszyu, Gausha dropped Lynch with a perfectly timed counter right hand in the ninth round.
Lynch was totally out of it after he got back to his feet. Gausha then dropped him two more times before referee Jerry Cantu halted the contest.
You can argue that the fight should have been halted after the first knockdown, as Lynch was totally defenseless and taking huge shots from Gausha.
Throughout the fight, Gausha was jabbing and countering Lynch and taking advantage of his lack of skills. Lynch had come on a little bit in the seventh and eighth rounds, landing nice right hands through the guard of Gausha.
Lynch and his trainer likely thought that Gausha had tired enough for them to fight more aggressively, and that was obviously a mistake; he still had a lot of fight left in the ninth, as we saw with him catching him with a hard right hand to score the first of three knockdowns.
Gausha had lost his previous fight in a narrow 12 round unanimous decision to Tim Tszyu in March 2022. He dropped Tszyu in the first round and outboxed him through much of the fight, but Tszyu came on strong in the championship rounds to get the decision.
It was a close enough fight that you could argue that a rematch would have been fitting, but you can’t blame Tszyu for moving on because he’ll get a big payday if he can challenge undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo this year.
Middleweight Daniel Blancas (5-0, 3 KOs) put on a body punching clinic, working over an overmatched Kynndale Prather (3-16, 1 KOs) in dropping him twice en route to a lightning quick first round knockout.
The lanky Blancas trapped the 31-year-old Prather in the corner and then let loose with a flurry of body shots that ended with a left that put him down. Referee Jack Reiss then halted the bout after Prather failed to get back up. The time of the stoppage was 1:53 of the first.
Undefeated junior middleweight Travon Marshall (8-0, 7 KOs) blasted out Justin DeLoach (19-6, 10 KOs) in the third round.
The 22-year-old Marshall had his way in the first two rounds, hitting the overmatched DeLoach with huge shots and not getting much back in return.
In the third, Marshall flattened DeLoach. The referee then halted the bout. The time of the stoppage was at 2:07.
Light welterweight journeyman Samuel Teah (19-4-1, 8 KOs) defeated southpaw Enriko Gogokhia (13-1-2, 8 KOs), winning a eight round unanimous decision. Teah, 35, knocked Gogokhia down in round one with a sweeping right hand to the head.
The scores were 78-73, 78-73, and 79-72. Gogokhia lacked the power to worry Teah, and he was eating a lot of counters the entire fight. In the sixth, Teah started slowing down, being more stationary and getting hit, but he was able to outwork Gogokhia in the championship rounds to preserve his win.
