The FJ Fury 09.03.09: Sonsona's Title Shot is Premature

Posted by FJ Parlan on 09.03.2009

In this week's regular edition of The FJ Fury, FJ Parlan examines why Marvin Sonsona's title shot could be disadvantageous to his very young career.


Did Marvin Sonsona's handlers make a wise decision getting him an early world title shot? We'll tell after September 4.

An era of Philippine boxing that teems with talent ushers in Marvin Sonsona, an 19-year-old prospect from General Santos city with immeasurable upside.

Immeasurable, that is, because on one part it hasn't really been measured yet.

On September 4, he will be up against the vastly experienced Jose "Carita" Lopez of Puerto Rico, at Ontario, Canada, for Lopez's WBO super flyweight title.

This fight figures to be a gauge of just how talented Sonsona, 13-0 (12), is. "Marvelous" Marvin's last fight was against Wandee Singwancha, who, despite a record of 59-7, provided no more challenge than it appeared on paper. This is the only sparkling figure on Sonsona's resume, and Sinwangcha's record may be fool's gold, too. The rest of Sonsona's high knockout-percentage record presents more opponents with losing slates than winning ones.

The southpaw Sonsona showed major punching power in knocking out Sinwancha in the 2^nd round of their fight, with lateral movement that seemed to resemble pound-for-pound entrant Nonito Donaire. As impressive as Sonsona looked against the Thai contender, don't believe it when they say that Sinwancha is a former world champion. Sinwancha was just an interim titleholder, even twice as he may have been. It's bad enough that these major titles appear to be jokes a lot of times and still call themselves as "world championships" when they do.

Too much is made with Sonsona's fight against Sinwancha, and that's because there is not much in Sonsona's resume to look at. He has never been past the fifth round in his young career, and as I've pointed out, Sinwancha's the only notable name on his record. The prospect is being advanced a little too speedily—his last fight wasn't against a former world champion and despite the respective opponent's experience and record, the fight itself wasn't even much of a test.

Sonsona is getting a premature shot at a world title and I consider so on two levels: One, Sonsona hasn't acquired enough experience to prepare him for a world title shot, and two, he hasn't done anything to deserve it. Both have something to do with his record.

I'm no Bruce Trampler, but with Sonsona at 19-years old, I think it's safe to say that pitting a youngster against a current world champion twice his age (and more than twice his ring experience) is not a wise matchmaking idea. I don't see any reason to rush. There's an influx of prospects flowing over from the Philippines with the help of Manny Pacquiao's rule of the sport, but what's the rush with finding the next Manny Pacquiao? Apparently, Sonsona's handlers haven't learned from the mistakes with other Filipino fighters, cases of too much and too early excitement for the potentials of some fighters that led to losses on a bigger stage and failure to produce a world champion in them (see: Rey "Boom-Boom" Bautista et al). Sonsona's future looks bright but he might get burned with its own brightness as his handlers underestimate the shine of his next opponent. The reward is promising with a world title at a ripe age, of which shot he doesn't deserve yet, but the risk may cost him a career. The only thing I can see going on for his handlers is Lopez's age, which is 37, and the fact that he has been beaten seven times (out of 48 fights, drawn 2, and 32 of the 39 wins coming by way of knockout). But let us be reminded that Lopez just won the WBO belt in his last fight, so he's still up there.

I'm excited about Sonsona and his next fight. It takes guts on both figters' part to take on such adversaries: a young, hungry, undefeated prospect for Lopez, and an experienced veteran who just won a world title after long years in the sport for Sonsona. But I can't help but opine that it's a bad move for the latter's career, and even if the outcome of the fight proves otherwise, who's to say that Sonsona won't be on a place he isn't supposed to be yet after that? His name will get attention in the division and the old cats in the weight class will look to take the guts out of the kid.

Nevertheless, the fight is set. Less than a month from now we will find out if Sonsona truly has what it takes to be the next-world beater from the Philippines, and if the business people behind him made the right decision of taking advantage of the hot boxing scenario in the Philippines, or we will see "Carita" fend off a challenger and score one for Puerto Rico in a brewing new boxing rivalry.

Crashing Right Hooks:

Your weekly random thoughts (worth of two weeks).

- I've never felt so strongly about a fight botched by a decision in my life, which is why my anger about the Malignaggi-Diaz fight was written all over the 411 site throughout the week. I have a considerably innocent love for boxing but now I'm seeing some of it this side of the red lights district that I mostly just read about and witnessed in movies before.

- Manny Pacquiao and his camp are unsettled for a training location for Pacquiao's crucial fight against Cotto. But at least they acknowledge their problems with the IRS, which another pound-for-pound topnotcher we know of doesn't quite.

- I don't know whatever happened with the idea of a Pacquiao movie with Batista and Nicole Scherzinger to be directed by Sylvester Stallone (or if they were rumors, I won't dignify it), but it has been reduced to a localized flick that doesn't have as much flash as it once had. In this case, I don't care as much anymore if this film doesn't come to fruition, and I'm agreeable with Freddie Roach's refusal to train in the Philippines and get near those distractions.

- Zab Judah has reportedly come off the Mayweather-Marquez undercard, with some comment about Diaz not being a worthy opponent or something. He also said he wants to fight Pacquiao, and he would "beat him senseless". I'm not sure if he's kidding, but "Super" is not that super anymore. Remember he was once discussed to be in a possible tune-up fight for Pacquiao? If anything, he's the one not worthy here.

- If you think my random boxing thoughts are too dominated by the Pac-Man, take a look at the body of work of Dennis D'Source Guillermo (I'm sure some of you are familiar): almost all (heck, if not all) of his boxing write-ups mention "Pacquiao." I thought I finally heard the last of Manny's surname in his articles for a refreshing change when he interviewed Malignaggi, but no. I'm just saying what I'm seeing.

- Big night for the Filipino fighters on "Island Assault". Brian Viloria and AJ Banal both win. There was no local broadcast that I knew of (because there was none, for some reason), creeps.

- I now remember why Nonito Donaire fought Rafael Concepcion. Like Jesus Iribe, Viloria's opponent, Concepcion didn't have a business fighting for a title (pay attention to the removal of "world" before "title"). Concepcion was the first only fighter to defeat AJ Banal. It was definitely a revenge ploy.

- HBO 24/7 is back, watched it, and boy, is it always good!

- For your 411: We will regularize "For The Underdog" as a column here in 411Mania. Look for that column featuring Juan Manuel Marquez before his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Read "The FJ Fury" every Monday, and you can do that by visiting 411Mania.com first. Make it a habit.