Brandon Figueroa vs Mark Magsayo official for March 4 on Showtime, interim WBC featherweight title at stake

Showtime have officially announced the expected March 4 main event between Brandon Figueroa and Mark Magsayo, which will be for the interim WBC featherweight title.

The a tripleheader Showtime Championship Boxing event will take place at Toyota Arena in Ontario, Calif. By the time the fight comes around, it could be for the full and vacant WBC title, depending on what happens when current titlist Rey Vargas faces O’Shaquie Foster for the vacant WBC title at 130 lbs.

(If this is confusing, like, I know, but it’ll shake out and you’ll pick it up eventually. We’ve got basically the exact same situation with the WBO right now, where featherweight titlist Emanuel Navarrete fights on Feb. 3 against Liam Wilson for their vacant 130 lb title, and Robeisy Ramirez vs Isaac Dogboe is already set for the interim featherweight title on Apr. 1, which could by then just be a full vacant WBO featherweight title fight.)

Figueroa (23-1-1, 18 KO) is a former titleholder at 122 lbs, losing a close decision in an action-packed fight with Stephen Fulton Jr in Nov. 2021. He fought just once last year, moving up to featherweight to stop Carlos Castro in the sixth round in July, a fight where he struggled a bit but did get the job done before the halfway point all the same.

He’s an action fighter, a warrior, and he will have a nice next test in Magsayo (24-1, 16 KO), who upset Gary Russell Jr in Jan. 2022 to win the WBC featherweight title, before losing it to the aforementioned Vargas in the main event of that same July card where Figueroa beat Castro.

Both Russell vs Magsayo and Magsayo vs Vargas were at least a little controversial, as Magsayo beat Russell by majority decision, and Vargas beat Magsayo by split decision.

Figueroa had been briefly expected to rematch Fulton, this time at featherweight, before news came out that Fulton was going to stay at 122 and defend his two belts against Naoya Inoue. That’s not official yet, but it’s the way things are leaning, especially with this fight now being made official.

Also on the card:

• Former 154 lb titleholder Jarrett Hurd (24-2, 16 KO) will face Armando Resendiz (13-1, 9 KO) in a 10-rounder at middleweight. The 32-year-old Hurd hasn’t fought since a June 2021 upset loss to Luis Arias, and has never really seemed to recover from his loss to Julian Williams in 2019, which came about a year after a war with Erislandy Lara. Resendiz, 23, lost to gatekeeper Marcos Hernandez in Sept. 2021, and bounced back last October with a win over Heber Rondon in Orlando on a smaller card. It seems clear that PBC would like to get Hurd back on the move at 160, where they do need fighters to face Jermall Charlo, and if Hurd can be rehabbed a bit, he could be a credible opponent.
• Another 10-rounder at middleweight will see Amilcar Vidal (16-0, 12 KO) take on Elijah Garcia (13-0, 11 KO), a good matchup of prospects. Uruguay’s Vidal is 26 and has sort of stepped back his rise a bit after a good 2021 win over Immanuwel Aleem. The 19-year-old Garcia is a southpaw out of Arizona who looked promising in some lower-level fights last year deep undercards for both PBC and Matchroom. You may have seen him stop Cruse Stewart in two rounds on the Rivera vs Martin Showtime YouTube prelims in December.