Former titleholders Brandon “The Heartbreaker” Figueroa and Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo will meet in a 12 round matchup on Saturday, March 4 for the WBC Interim World Featherweight Title. The bout will headline a Showtime Championship Boxing card from the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Figueroa (23-1-1, 18 KO), now campaigning in a new weight class, is looking to get a win streak going after losing a competitive majority decision to Stephen Fulton in a November 2021 super-bantamweight unification bout. The former titleholder was able to pick up a bounce back win the following July, stopping Carlos Castro in the sixth round.
Magsayo (24-1, 16 KO) is coming off of a split decision loss to two-division titleholder Rey Vargas, which happened on the same card in which Figueroa earned his return victory against Castro in July 2022. “Magnifico” burst onto the championship boxing scene after his upset decision win over Gary Russell Jr earlier that year and will be hopeful of winning back the WBC crown he formerly held.
Currently, Vargas still holds the full WBC title at 126 lbs, despite moving up to super-featherweight recent. An interim title was put on the line for the winner of Figueroa vs Magsayo this weekend since Vargas needed time to prepare for and fight O’Shaquie Foster for a vacant title at 130 lbs. So, the winner of the bout on March 4th will likely meet Vargas in their next bout for the full championship later this year.
Fighter’s Form (last 5 fights):
Brandon Figueroa
Carlos Castro - WIN by TKO 6 - 09/07/2022
Stephen Fulton - LOSS by MD (116-112, 116-112, 114-114) - 27/11/2021
Luis Nery - WIN by KO 7 - 15/05/2021
Damien Vazquez - WIN by TKO 10 - 26/09/2020
Julio Ceja - DRAW by SD (115-113, 112-116, 114-114) - 23/11/2019
Mark Magsayo
Rey Vargas - LOSS by SD (115-112, 115-112, 113-114) - 09/07/2022
Gary Russell Jr. - WIN by MD - 22/01/2022
Julio Ceja - WIN by KO 10 - 21/08/2021
Pablo Cruz - WIN by TKO 4 - 10/04/2021
Rigoberto Hermosillo - WIN by SD (100-90, 96-94, 94-96) - 03/10/2020
Event Information:
Date: March 4th, 2023
Time: 2 am (GMT), 6pm (PT), 9pm (ET)
Venue: Toyota Arena, Ontario, California, USA
Channel: Showtime
Elsewhere on the card
In the co-main event, former unified junior middleweight champion Jarrett “Swift” Hurd (24-2, 16 KO), who will now be competing 160 lbs, will take on Armando Resendiz (13-1, 9 KO) in a 10-round contest. Also on the card will be Amilcar Vidal (16-0, 12 KO) facing off against Elijah Garcia (13-0, 11 KO) in a battle of unbeaten middleweights.