ONTARIO, California – Mark Magsayo couldn’t believe it when referee Thomas Taylor took a point from him for holding and hitting Brandon Figueroa during the eighth round Saturday night.

A dismayed Magsayo called Taylor’s second deduction for the same infraction in the 11th round “crazy” during a post-fight interview in his locker room at Toyota Arena. Magsayo believes Figueroa did plenty of holding as well, but the former WBC featherweight champion considers that tactic part of boxing.

Taylor’s two point deductions didn’t alter the official result because judges Gary Ritter (117-109), Fernando Villarreal (117-109) and Zachary Young (118-108) all scored their WBC interim featherweight title fight for Figueroa by wide distances. Magsayo thought their fight was much closer than that and he was frustrated by the way Taylor officiated their “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event.

“I feel like the referee was like one-sided,” Magsayo told a small group of reporters. “And Figueroa was holding me, too. We’re holding together.”

Magsayo thought Taylor was going to issue him a warning when he separated him from Figueroa with 2:29 to go in the eighth round. The Filipino fighter was surprised again with 1:16 remaining in the 11th round, when Taylor took another point from him.

“That’s boxing,” Magsayo said. “He’s holding, I’m holding, we’re clinching. And that second deduction, it’s like we’re punching and [he took another point]. That’s crazy.”

 A frustrated Magsayo mentioned Floyd Mayweather while explaining why he was so befuddled by the tact Taylor took to him holding.

“Floyd do that every time,” Magsayo said. “You know Floyd Mayweather, right? He do that every time, in [the Marcos] Maidana fight. It’s normal.”

Sean Gibbons, Magsayo’s promotional representative, didn’t think there was anything normal about the way Taylor penalized his fighter.

“Mark said he felt like the referee was on him,” said Gibbons, the president of Manny Pacquiao’s promotional company. “He felt like his presence, like the f------ referee was working Figueroa’s corner, too. It’s horrible. He just felt something. … Everything the ref was doing was geared towards Mark.”

A fatigued Magsayo (24-2, 16 KOs) fell to the canvas several times during the second half of their bout, but Taylor didn’t count any of those instances as knockdowns for Figueroa. Magsayo got off to a strong start, but Young scored all of the final nine rounds for Figueroa (24-1-1, 18 KOs), whereas Ritter and Villarreal each scored eight of the last nine rounds for the former WBA/WBC 122-pound champion.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.