One of the unlikeliest success stories of 2022 takes centre stage this Saturday evening at the Alamodome in San Antonio, as Mark Magsayo defends his WBC featherweight title for the first time, with former WBC super bantamweight champion, Rey Vargas, his opponent in Texas.
Magsayo vs Vargas is a Premier Boxing Champions offering, shown live on SHOWTIME in the USA.
Magsayo (24-0, 16 KOs) had been mainly campaigning in his homeland of the Philippines until 2020, and after two low-key wins, the 27-year-old overcame former WBC super bantamweight champion, Julio Ceja in a thriller.
Ceja was dropped in the opening round, but then returned the favour in the fifth, and was ahead on all three cards before being knocked out in the tenth in August last year.
That win led to a shot at the WBC title, where the formidable Gary Russell Jr stood in his way.
The American had only lost to Vasiliy Lomachenko previously, but Magsayo took advantage of a severe Russell Jr arm injury in the fourth, and did enough over the distance to take a majority verdict to become new champion in January.
‘Magnifico’ now faces something of an enigma in Vargas (35-0, 22 KOs), a Mexican that has been pretty inactive in the last few years.
The 31-year-old took the vacant WBC belt at 122lbs in 2017, when he took a majority decision win in Hull against Gavin McDonnell, and he defended five times, the last a wide points win over Tomoki Kameda in July 2019.
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His last contest came in November last year, where he clearly outscored Leonardo Baez over ten rounds in his featherweight debut, after moving up in weight.
Prediction: Vargas fights a lot in retreat, and this could well play into Magsayo’s hands. The Filipino is a pressure fighter, and this should serve him well. I lean towards Magsayo to take a clear points win.
Figueroa faces Castro
The co-feature sees Brandon Figueroa attempt to get back on track, as he moves up to featherweight to take part in an eliminator for the aforementioned WBC crown against Carlos Castro over twelve rounds.
Figueroa (21-1-1, 17 KOs) tasted defeat for the first time in his last fight, where he lost via majority decision in an attempt to unify at super bantamweight to Stephen Fulton Jr, who took his WBC strap and added it to his WBO one.
Castro (27-1, 12 KOs) is also coming off defeat, but it was a close one, with a first round knockdown costing him a draw, eventually losing a split decision over ten rounds.
Prediction: I favour Figueroa to come through on the cards here.
Martin meets Marinez
At lightweight, Frank Martin (15-0, 11 KOs) takes on Jackson Marinez (19-2, 7 KOs) over a scheduled ten rounds.
Marinez has lost his last two fights to Rolando Romero and Richard Commey.
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Prediction: Marinez was stopped against Commey and I fancy that Martin can do the same.
Remaining Undercard
Rashidi Ellis, an unbeaten welterweight from Massachusetts, is set to return against an opponent to be confirmed after Argentina’s Alberto Palmetta withdrew with a back injury.
Ellis (23-0, 14 KOs) is coming off an impressive points win against Alexis Rocha.
The final ten rounder comes at bantamweight, and Ramon Cardenas (20-1, 10 KOs) can outscore Michell Banquez (20-1, 14 KOs), who defeated Prince Patel to win the IBO belt just two fights ago.
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The sole six rounder comes at welterweight, where John Rincon (6-0, 2 KOs) should come through against Archiebald Weah (10-14, 5 KOs) inside the distance.
The remainder of the card are four round contests. At middleweight, Samuel Arnold (5-0, 3 KOs) should halt Antonio Louis Hernandez (6-13-2, 4 KOs), and Raymond Guajardo (5-1, 4 KOs) can do the same against Dario Guerrero-Meneses (0-2).
Super lightweight debutant, Fabian Diaz can win on points against Julio Gomez (1-1-2, 1 KO), and Albert Gonzalez (2-0, 1 KO) can outscore Alberto Alvarez (4-0, 3 KOs) at super bantamweight.
At featherweight, Xavier Bocanegra (1-0) can triumph on the cards against debutant Travis Crawford, and Sequiel Hernandez should win on debut on the cards against Joshua Montoya (2-2-2).
