MARK Magsayo is now in Atlantic City, New Jersey in time for fight week of his WBC featherweight championship bout against reigning champion Gary Russell on Sunday (Manila time).
The unbeaten Filipino stressed he’s coming in fully prepared for his first-ever shot at a world title.
“I’ve been training for three-and-a-half months now, so I’m going to be well prepared for this fight,” said the 26-year-old Magsayo, who’s being trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach.
Magsayo sports a perfect 23-0 record with 16 KOs and is coming off his toughest challenge yet against Mexican Julio Ceja in the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas welterweight encounter at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas last August.
During that fight, Magsayo went down in the fifth round and trailed Ceja when he delivered a vicious right hand that stopped Ceja for good in the 10th round. The come-from-behind win was eventually named Knockout of the Year by the Premiere Boxing Champion (PBC).
Full of confidence
The experience he gained in the Ceja fight and the hours of training he did for his maiden world title match gives the Filipino the confidence he can beat Russell.
“I’ve had had great sparring partners to prepare me for Russell and give me the same looks that he’ll give me on fight night,” said Magsayo. “This is my first world title fight and I’m going to give it my all.
“I’m going to be the stronger fighter against Russell. We trained every day with Freddie Roach, and we’ve worked on a lot of different techniques we’ll use in this fight.”
Russell is 31-1, with 18 KOs and will be making the sixth defense of his crown at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.
But the American hasn’t been very active since the onset of the pandemic and last fought in February 2020 when he scored a unanimous decision against Tugstsoqt Nyambayar of Mongolia to retain his WBC belt.
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