By Adrian Stewart Co

Mark Magsayo scored a massive 10th round stoppage win over Mexican Julio Ceja in their WBC featherweight championship eliminator match on Saturday (Sunday in the Philippines) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

With his unbeaten slate on the brink of being tarnished, Magsayo unloaded a huge right straight to Ceja’s face followed by another short right to send his opponent to the canvas for good with under a minute in the 10th round.

The victory sets the Tagbilaran City, Bohol-native Magsayo up for a challenge against WBC world featherweight championship holder Gary Russell Jr. of the United States.

Prior to that, Magsayo opened the match by knocking down Ceja in the first round before the Mexican connected with his body shots in the succeeding rounds.

Ceja send Magsayo to the canvas in the fifth round with a huge right to the body and an uppercut. The Filipino clawed his way back in the next rounds by going toe-to-toe with the Mexican.

The 26-year-old Magsayo improved his record to 23-0-0 with 15 knockout victories, while the 28-year-old Ceja saw his record fall to 32-5-1 with 28 victories by way of stoppages.

In the undercard, Filipino boxer John Leo Dato suffered his first defeat in his boxing career after a  unanimous decision loss to Mexican fighter Angel Antonio Contreras.

The Bangar, La Union-native Dato started strong in the first two rounds with solid hits on Contreras until the Filipino went down in the third round on a right uppercut by the Mexican.

It was all Contreras since then as he pummeled Dato with multiple combinations while the answers of the Filipino were just limited en route to a unanimous decision win by the Mexican.

With the defeat, Dato saw his erstwhile unbeaten slate to drop to 14-1-1 win-loss-draw slate, including nine stoppage wins, while Contreras improved to 11-4-2, with six stoppage wins./ASC, WDJ