It is wasn’t the result that Mark Magsayo wanted. After his fight against Brandon Figueroa, Magsayo as well as his advisor Sean Gibbons were livid at the whole situation around their loss to Brandon Figueroa. From the way the bout was refereed to the scoring of the contest it felt as though the team didn’t find one bit of solace in anything that occurred on that fateful Saturday night March 4th, in Ontario, California.
Neither Magsayo nor Gibbons were happy with the result, but it is clear that this was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up, but now they are looking to go in another direction with Magsayo’s career after not getting the result they wanted.
For Magsayo, it was fairly obvious that featherweight might be a tall order for him to remain at. Magsayo was at the hotel gym late in the evening grinding to make weight on Thursday night prior to the weigh-in. Magsayo would miss weight on his first attempt, and would take nearly the whole two hours the state of California allows to make the 126 lbs limit. When Magsayo did, it was a loud cheer from his team and a sense of relief that he would not have to pay a hefty fine for a finically fruitful payday, but it might have come at a cost as it appeared Magsayo slowed down later in the fight.
“Same,” said Mark Magsayo, when veteran reporter Marcos Villegas asked if the weight cut or result played a part in Magsayo moving up to super featherweight after this fight. “We’re going to move up to 130 [lbs].”
Now comes the fun part, let’s play half-baked matchmaker. Who could Magsayo fight next? He could rematch Gary Russell Jr., at 130 lbs., which is Magsayo’s biggest win of his career. This seems the most logical and also has a built in narrative arch. Though tempers were flying high on Saturday night, and Magsayo didn’t comment on if that would be of interest, one thing is for certain Magsayo has established himself as credible world ranked fighter who has only lost to rather dominant world champions in Rey Vargas, and now Brandon Figueroa.
“I did my best in the ring,” said a humble Magsayo afterward. “That was a close fight for me [against Brandon Figueroa].”
