Lanky southpaw and former WBO flyweight and reigning North American Boxing Federation featherweight champion “Marvelous” Marvin Sonsona is slowly but surely ruining what was once a promising career with his lack of focus as a fighter and his lack of discipline.
The “Marvelous” tag is soon disappearing and is being replaced by a sense of frustration among his handlers and fans who expected great things from the 24-year-old.
A planned fight against former world title challenger and WBC Silver champion Rocky Juarez scheduled for December 21 possibly at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino has been called off following Sonsona’s failure to report to the gym to begin training despite several promises to do so.
The Juarez fight was to serve as a final eliminator to determine the mandatory challenger’s slot for the title recently retained by Jhonny Gonzalez who hammered ageing veteran Jorge “Travieso” Arce to score an 11th-round TKO which sent Arce into retirement.
Sonsona failed to realize that the Juarez fight was a crucial step in his bid to win a second world title considering his skill and punching power which was premised on the imperative that he trained hard and maintained his focus.
But he failed to do that believing that a month’s training would be good enough to win. This attitude which sometimes borders on “cocky” has frustrated everybody involved with the fighter.
International matchmaker and promoter Sampson Lewkowicz’s Filipino partner Samson Gello-ani had provided Sonsona with airline tickets to fly to Manila from General Santos City, not once but twice, yet he failed to take the flight which resulted in Gello-ani ‘s financial loss because of the “no refund” airline policy.
Gello-ani has lost his patience with Sonsona whom he helped become a world champion when he dropped WBO flyweight champion Jose “Carita” Lopez en route to a unanimous 12-round decision in Ontario, Canada to grab the world title.
Just when Gello-ani and Lewkowicz thought Sonsona’ career was once again taking off following his sensational third-round knockout of former world champion Akifumi Shimoda of Japan in Macau last February 22, boxing fans as well as trainers spotted Sonsona drinking beer shortly after the fight, in full public view.
His showing against Shimoda won praise from Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who said his knockout of Shimoda was one of the very best he had ever seen.
The left uppercut which devastated the former world champion from Japan was as perfect as it was vicious and provided an insight into the skill, speed and punching power of the Filipino.
In his next fight which was a rematch following his fourth-round KO loss in a vacant WBO International super bantamweight title showdown to former world champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Sonsona dropped the Puerto Rican in the opening round but had to eventually settle for a split decision win last June 7 as the lack of training became evident as Sonsona faded in the championship rounds and often resorted to holding.
The fight which started in sensational fashion ended in disappointment as the hope of a repeat of the Shimoda knockout by Sonsona quickly disappeared.
Ranked No. 3 in the featherweight division by the World Boxing Council, Sonsona was being matched in a mandatory NABF title defense against undefeated Jayson “La Maravilla” Velez of Puerto Rico sometime in December but the fight was scrapped because of Sonsona’s failure to train and his handlers’ refusal to take any chances not knowing what Sonsona would do.
With the big opportunity to fight Juarez, Sonsona again failed to change his attitude and remained in GenSan having a good time and refusing to train, resulting in the fight being called off.
In the past we ourselves have spoken to Sonsona and impressed on him the need to concentrate on his career because of his inborn talent.
He listened for a while, came to Quezon City to train at the gym of Dr. Rajan Yraola under veteran trainer Jun Agrabio and even studied a DVD of Shimoda which we obtained for him from our friends in the World Boxing Council.
We studied the fight tape with Sonsona, trainer Jun Agrabio and Dr. Rajan Yraola at the gym of Yraola in Quezon City. Although he trained for less than a month he looked good and demolished Shimoda as we had predicted.
Sonsona didn’t train as hard as he should have for the Vazquez fight and failed to impress even though he won. With the Juarez fight looming, Sonsona didn’t start training as required, forcing a frustrated Gello-ani to throw his hands up in frustration telling us, “Marvin has to change his attitude, otherwise its useless.”
All efforts to contact Sonsona have proved futile. He doesn’t answer calls or text messages.
Regrettably it seems, a truly talented fighter is wasting the opportunities given him and throwing away his chances of becoming a world champion once again. What a crying shame!
No comments:
Post a Comment