Mark "Magnifico" Magsayo displayed grit and dogged determination to survive a grueling 12-round war against durable Japanese fighter Shota Hayashi in the main event of Pinoy Pride 43 in Tagbilaran City on Saturday.

Hayashi proved to be a tough test, possibly the toughest in the Boholano fighter’s career, as the visitor took everything Magsayo threw at him at Bohol Wisdom Gymnasium.

Magsayo repeatedly connected vicious left hooks and nasty upper cuts to Hayashi’s head, but the Japanese merely shrugged them off and retaliated with several power right hands.

Magsayo troubled Hayashi in the ninth when a liver shot had the Japanese wincing in pain, but Hayashi recovered and engaged the Filipino in a phone-booth battle to the crowd’s delight.

In the end, the judges saw Magsayo as the busier fighter, handing the Filipino a unanimous decision win and a possible shot against reigning WBO featherweight king Oscar Valdez.

“Ang tibay talaga niya,” Magsayo said of Hayashi. “Malakas talaga. Matibay siya sa bodega, so nahirapan din ako.”

Magsayo now has 18 wins.

Other Pinoy fighters in the main card were triumphant as well.

“Prince” Albert Pagara knocked out Mohammed Kambuluta of Tanzania.

The slippery Tanzanian puzzled Pagara with his consistent head movement in the first round. But Pagara found his mark in the second stanza, flooring Kambuluta twice en route to a stoppage victory in their super-bantamweight match.

Pagara now has 29 victories against 1 defeat.

Jeo “Santino” Santisima made quick work of visiting fighter Ki Chang Kim of Indonesia.

The hard-hitting Filipino junior-bantamweight ruthlessly pounded Kim’s body to the point that the Indonesian was forced to take a knee in the first round.

Santisima now has 15 victories.

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