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Sonsona stripped of title but fight goes on tonight
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Blame should be distributed all around for the embarrassing weigh -in fiasco today of Filipino Marvin Sonsona. He was to defend his World Boxing Organization Super Flyweight (115) title in Ontario, Canada. Sonsona chose not to lose the 2.6 pounds. But something stinks here.
The fight will go on tonight. Sonsona has been stripped of the title. Mexican opponent Alejandro Hernandez can win the vacant title if he wins outright.
I don't pretend to really know Sonsona. I just started following him because I follow Manny Pacquiao and that is obvious.
But here is what I do know:
Sonsona was a professional world boxing champion. He's 19. He 's old enough to vote, defend his country in war, and sign his name to a legal contract with commerce involved.
Oh, he may beat Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. on February 20 back in the Philippines next at 122 and have another title and all this is quickly forgotten.
I wish him good luck. I understand he's recently just shot up an inch and a half so he'll bypass 118 altogether and go on to 122.
Now, WBO President Paco Valcarcel, is still splashing around in his Puerto Rico bathtub with his 3% sanctioning fee of last week's Pacquiao vs. Cotto fight. Probably the WBO's biggest one night haul!
But Jose Sulaiman, his World Boxing Council and its Diamond catchweight belt stole the show with pre-fight publicity, the weigh- in and fight night.
The big difference between the WBC and WBO and how it relates to Sonsona is that for title fights, the WBC sends supervisors to the training camps to check the weights both 30 and 10 days out and the fighters have to make pre-arranged weights as the fights get closer just so situations such as we have here with Sonsona don't happen.
Apparently the WBO didn't care or just left it to the local authorities in Canada to investigate a few days ago and the commission apparently saw the weight problem but let Sosana manager Dr. Rajan Yraola convince them that the weight would not be a problem by time of the weigh - in.
Next, manager Yraola, a dentist, and is the fighter's cutman, should have done something other than telling the commission he'd make weight.
Maybe noticing Sonsona wasn't eating or ordering room service or his hotel room being 90 degrees would have been a clue.
But maybe they knew this was a lost cause and they never tried to make weight and Sosana was at the buffet for three meals a day.
The truth will eventually come out.
This is what makes an otherwise honest legitimate situation of a fighter not making weight seem like a sleazy proposition.
Sosana, at 19, has the biggest upside because of his youth and talent and I hope he takes this seriously and I hope to be writing positive stories about him in the future.
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