It took Brandon Figueroa a while to get going. As he did so, he rolled over Jessie Magdaleno.
Figueroa, a powerful punching featherweight contender, knocked out Magdaleno with a left to the body in the ninth round of their scheduled 12-round bout on the Canelo Alvarez-Jaime Munguia card on Saturday in Las Vegas.
The skillful Magdaleno (29-3, 18 KOs) started strong, attacking quickly when there was an opening, then holding or using his quick feet to prevent the strangely dormant Figueroa from getting into rhythm.
Figueroa had not fought in 14 months, which may have created rust that he had difficulty removing.
However, around the fourth or fifth round, Figueroa began to increase his work rate and land more consistently. Magdaleno remained competitive but he also began to slow down, an obvious result of Figueroa’s pressure.
The ending is brutal. Figueroa was pounding Magdaleno against the ropes when he missed a perfect left to the stomach in the final seconds of Round 9, sending Magdaleno to his knees in pain.
He was counted out with one second left in the round, giving Figueroa (25-1-1, 19 KOs) a successful defense of his “interim” WBC title and his third straight victory since he is narrowly edged out by Stephen Fulton in 2021.
Magdaleno exceeded the division limit by 2.6 pounds on Friday. However, neither that nor his skill set could overcome Figueroa’s relentless attack.
