MANILA – Jessel Mark Magsayo achieved his world championship dream. He outpointed Gary Russell Jr. in their world title clash on Saturday night (Sunday in the Philippines) at the Borgota Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The Tagbilaran City, Bohol native got a close 114-114, 115-113, 115-113 majority score from the three judges to snatch the WBC world featherweight title away from Russell.
“This is my dream,” Magsayo said. “Now that I am a world champion, I am willing to fight anybody, even Russell (again).”
Magsayo was the aggressor in the opening round. He landed numerous right hands to the defense of Russell.
Russell then countered with his own attacks in the second, including a left straight that hurt Magsayo a bit.
Magsayo regained his form in the third. He targeted Russell’s body with hard right punches.
Russell suffered an injury on his right arm in the fourth when he landed a right hand to the face of Magsayo.
Despite fighting with just one hand, Russell still managed to keep in step with Magsayo with his defense that forced the Filipino to several missed attempts in the fifth and sixth rounds.
In the seventh, Magsayo was able to penetrate the defense of Russell with a counter right hand but the latter responded in the eighth frame with a counter left straight that knocked the Filipino off balance.
With his injury hurting, Russell became elusive in the ninth and 10th rounds forcing his opponent to miss but Magsayo still landed a left hook about three seconds before the 10th round concluded.
Magsayo chased Russell around the ring for most of the 11th round, but he couldn’t connect with flush punches.
Magsayo landed a right to Russell’s body midway in the 12th round, only to have Russell counter with a straight left to his face.
With the victory, Magsayo kept his untarnished slate of 24-0-0, including 16 victories by way of stoppages, while Russell lost for just the second time in his career to drop to 32-2-0 with 18 KO wins./PN
