The Philippines is a nation which has the reputation of continually developing fantastic fighters in recent years. One of these is Mark Magsayo (11-0, 9) who in spite of being a professional newbie is tipped to be something really special under the support of ALA Promotions.
Magsayo started boxing while he was just 8 years old and before he had turned professional he already had fought in approximately 200 amateur competitions.
Although we are not aware of Magsayo’s full amateur record the things we do know is that he had been a 4-time winner at the annual Amateur Boxing Association (ABAP) national tournaments in the country.
Magsayo also impressed in a public sparring session with Genesis Servania who was ranked quite high. Servania rated #6 at 122lbs was presented with a really tough workout by Magsayo who showed all the characteristics that we often search for in a promising prospect.
Magsayo would be making his professional debut right after that training session with Servania and gladly introduced himself to the viewers of “Pinoy Pride XX” as he defeated Melton Sandal. Melton, who was making his professional debut, was dropped two times in only 129 seconds.
After making his debut, Mark Magsayo has signed with ALA Promotions for a multi-year-deal who has the objective of transforming him into a world champion. Recently, after having seen his 2nd contest, in which he blasted out Jamjam Ungon in the opening round, it’s not hard to see why we are raving about this teenager who has been referred to as “Magnificent”. He already seems to possess great power, fantastic speed, patience, smart movement as well as amazing shot selection.
The first really remarkable result in his career had been a decision over John Rey Melligen and after that he followed it up by destroying Hagibis Quinones inside a round to finish 2013 with a superb ledger of 4-0 (3).
Even though Magsayo had experienced a great 2013 he truly excelled the next year during which he scored 5 wins, which includes 4 by stoppage. Probably the most impressive of these was a 6th round TKO versus Ernesto Tata Fontanilla although what was even more appealing was that Magsayo appeared to be improving with every fight and also a 2nd round stoppage of Korean boxer Moon Sun Jung in November, became particularly impressive soon after Jung received the South Korean Super Bantamweight title, only a couple of months later.
He started 2015 with an impressive win over Sukkasem Kietyongyuth of Thailand, who was a PABA champion previously. In that particular bout, Magsayo appeared to display some nerves in early stages but demonstrated his class in the end when he eventually eliminated his Thai opponent to move one step closer to a title bout.
Ever since the win over Sukkasem we have seen Magsayo combat once more, impressively defeating Rafael Reyes to win the IBF Youth Featherweight title. In his US debut on October 18, 2015, Magsayo maintained his unbeaten record by defeating the Mexican boxer, Yardly Suarez in a first round knockout. This win helped the Filipino to win the International Boxing Federation Youth featherweight title. It is expected that Magsayo will be confronting many more reputed opponents next year.
