Jose Lopez vs Marvin Sonsona

Marvin Sonsona became the World Boxing Organization super-flyweight champion at the age of 19 by outpointing José “Carita” López over 12 rounds at Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada, on September 4, 2009. Sonsona, an unbeaten southpaw from General Santos City in the Philippines, won unanimously by scores of 116–109, 115–110 and 114–111. The victory advanced his record to 14–0, with 12 knockouts, while López fell to 39–8–2.

López was making the first defence of the championship he had won by defeating Pramuansak Phosuwan in Puerto Rico five months earlier. The 37-year-old had waited through several unsuccessful world-title attempts before finally securing the vacant WBO belt. He entered the defence unbeaten in 16 contests dating back to his 2001 points defeat by Fernando Montiel. Sonsona, 18 years his junior, was fighting outside the Philippines for the first time and stepping up from flyweight. López weighed 114 pounds and Sonsona the super-flyweight limit of 115.

The champion started purposefully and tried to make his experience count against the taller challenger. López pressed forward behind his jab and looked for the straight right, the natural counter against Sonsona’s southpaw stance. Sonsona used his two-inch advantage in height, kept his punches long and answered with hooks and uppercuts. Towards the end of the second round, the Filipino hurt López with a combination, giving the first clear indication that his power had travelled into the heavier division.

López recovered and continued trying to drive Sonsona backwards, but the decisive early incident came in the fourth. Sonsona found the champion with a straight left to the jaw and dropped him heavily. López’s fall was partly checked when his head came to rest against the bottom rope, but the knockdown was clean, and he required the referee’s count. He regained his feet and survived the remainder of the round, although Sonsona’s confidence increased after discovering that he could hurt the older man with a single accurate left.

The champion responded through the middle rounds by increasing his pressure. He continued to land the right hand when Sonsona left himself square after attacking, and on more than one occasion he checked the younger boxer’s advance. Sonsona did not have matters entirely his own way and was made to absorb clean counters. Nevertheless, his heavier shots and greater activity kept López on the defensive for long stretches, while the fourth-round knockdown remained an important advantage on the cards.

Punches below the belt repeatedly spoiled López’s work. Referee Rocky Zolnierczyk issued warnings before taking the unusual but permissible step of deducting two points at once in the eighth round for persistent low blows. The penalty placed the champion in a difficult position, as he was already behind because of the knockdown. López continued to press and tried to force a mistake from Sonsona, but he now required a substantial rally to recover the lost ground.

Sonsona retained sufficient strength for the later rounds and continued meeting López with the left hand as the Puerto Rican moved forward. The challenger was not defensively complete and remained open to López’s straight right, but his youth, reach and punching authority enabled him to finish without surrendering control. López competed to the final bell and was never close to being stopped after the fourth, yet he could not erase the combined effect of Sonsona’s cleaner power punches, the knockdown and the two-point deduction.

Judge Harry Davis scored the fight 114–111, Ted Gimza returned a card of 116–109, and Kelly Zolnierczyk had it 115–110, all for Sonsona. The result made him one of the youngest world champions produced by the Philippines and ended López’s brief reign. Sonsona’s own championship tenure proved shorter still. He failed to make the 115-pound limit for his proposed first defence against Alejandro Hernandez in November and was stripped of the title before the contest, which ended in a split draw. Against López, however, he had completed 12 rounds for the first time and deservedly secured the championship through superior power, activity and the bout’s only knockdown.

Jose Lopez had waited years for a world title, finally winning the WBO belt at 37, while Marvin Sonsona arrived as an unbeaten 19-year-old with 12 stoppages in 13 fights. That contrast made the contest interesting. López had the experience and a useful straight right against a southpaw, but Sonsona was taller, younger and carried genuine power after moving up from flyweight.

Sonsona’s straight left in the fourth round was the defining punch. López went down heavily and admitted afterwards that he felt the effects for the remainder of the fight. The youngster did not dominate every minute, though. López pressured him through the middle rounds and repeatedly found him with right hands. Sonsona’s defence was loose, particularly after he had thrown, and a quicker champion would have punished those gaps more severely.

López damaged his own chances by repeatedly going low and losing two points in the eighth. Even without that deduction, I still had Sonsona winning. His punches were cleaner and carried greater authority, while López spent too much time following instead of cutting off the ring.

The unanimous decision was correct, but the performance also showed that Sonsona was still unfinished. He had power, height and confidence, but needed greater discipline. Failing to make weight for his first defence only two months later confirmed that concern. This was a deserved title-winning victory, although the talk of him becoming the next Manny Pacquiao was well ahead of the evidence.