By Mark Vester
On the undercard to Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones Jr. at New York's Madison Square Garden, Francisco "El Gato" Figueroa (20-2, 13KOs) caught a break by winning an eight-round split-decision over Emanuel Augustus (38-30, 20KOs). The scores were 77-75 for Augustus, 77-75 for Figueroa and 77-75 for Figueroa. There were many who felt Augustus did enough to win and the scores drew some boos from Figueroa's hometown crowd.
Augustus made it tough early, coming out and placing a lot of pressure on Figueroa and making it very hard for El Gato to land clean punches. They traded rounds with Augustus getter the better of the action with his "Drunken Master" style that was filled with dancing, shaking and punching. Figueroa landed some good counter in the seventh, but Augustus came out strong in the eight by pressing forward with hard combinations.
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