Brandon Figueroa successfully retained his interim WBC featherweight title against Jessie Magdaleno on May 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The pair battled it out on the card headlined by Canelo Alvarez vs Jaime Munguia on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
The scheduled for 12 rounds bout didn’t go the full distance. The Weslaco, Texas native dropped and stopped former world champion of Las Vegas with a big liver shot. The official time was 2 minutes and 59 seconds into the ninth round. In the fourth round the latter went down due to an unintentional low blow.
With the victory by knockout, former WBC and WBA super bantamweight champion Figueroa improved to 25-1-1, 19 KOs. The 27-year-old made the first defense of his interim belt and earned the third win in a row.
“I just had to be patient,” said Figueroa. “He was blocking the body shot with his arm, but I had to wear him down to get the opening. I waited and I got it.”
“I might have been a little rusty not fighting for 14 months, but hats off to Jessie, it was a great fight. I felt very relaxed in the ring. I knew I had to jab my way in, break him down and get that opening.”
Former WBO super bantamweight champion Jessie Magdaleno dropped to 29-3, 18 KOs. The 32-year-old southpaw suffered his second straight defeat.
“I’m more annoyed because it was such a close fight,” said Magdaleno. “I tried to get up with all my might, but once you’re hit in the right spot, it’s hard to get up.”
“I heard the 10 second sound and I wanted to create some space and right when I extended my right arm, he threw the left hook to the body and caught me right in the liver. It just took my legs out.”
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