Sonsona gets revenge on Vazquez Jr., wins decision

NEW YORK – For seven seconds, it seemed as if Marvin Sonsona would get the most poetic form of revenge possible.

Four years ago, Sonsona had lost to Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. by body shot knockout, going down for the count thanks to the paralyzing pain of a left hook to the liver. 

On Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Sonsona put Vazquez down just one minute into the first round with a left to the liver. And for seven seconds, Vazquez was on the canvas. He rose, however, and Sonsona was forced to battle for 10 ugly rounds en route to a split decision victory.

The 96-92 scorecards of judges Michael Pernick and Julie Lederman had Sonsona as the winner. The dissenting vote of John Poturaj read 96-92 in favor of Vazquez.

Both were in markedly different places than they had been both before and after their first fight.

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Sonsona of General Santos City, Philippines was a young former world champion back in February 2010, a 19-year-old who had won a title at 115 pounds the previous year with a unanimous decision over Jose Lopez. Yet in his first defense, against Alejandro Hernandez, Sonsona came in remarkably overweight, coming in at 117.5 pounds. The Hernandez fight ended as a draw, but it didn’t matter — Sonsona had dropped his belt at the scales.

He left behind the 115-pound division and didn’t even stop in the 118-pound division, instead jumping up to 122 pounds to face Vazquez for a vacant world title.

Sonsona tried to overwhelm Vazquez with combinations, yet he was getting caught with hard right hands in return. While Sonsona was coming up in weight, Vazquez had been even heavier earlier in his career. Vazquez could take Sonsona’s punches, and Sonsona was getting hurt by Vazquez’s. Vazquez would pressure Sonsona to the ropes, then punish him.

In the fourth round, the Bayamon, Puerto Rico native Vazquez landed a big right hand to the head and then dug the left hook into the body. Sonsona threw a punch and then went down in a delayed reaction.

Sonsona didn’t return to the ring for nearly 20 months. He’s scored four wins in a row since then, including a big one-punch uppercut knockout of former 122-pound titleholder Akifumi Shimoda this past February. 

Vazquez, meanwhile, went on to make two successful title defenses before succumbing to Jorge Arce in the final round of their May 2011 fight. Since then, it had been rough going for Vazquez, who would win one and then lose one. Those defeats included a decision loss to Nonito Donaire in February 2012 and a decision loss to Yasatuka Ishimoto in April.

Both men needed this win on Saturday night. Sonsona worked to prevent a repeat of four years ago, at times keeping his right arm down to block body shots. Vazquez began to warm up in the third and fourth rounds, landing right hands upstairs and digging to Sonsona’s body. Sonsona resorted to holding at times, a tactic that caused the referee to take a point away from him in the sixth round.

The fight was beginning to get to Sonsona. Early in the seventh, he went down after he and Vazquez clashed heads. Later in the round, he returned to the canvas following a low blow. They wrestled. They held. They did everything but punch effectively. CompuBox had Sonsona landing just 120 of 463 punches, a 26 percent connect rate. Vazquez was credited with going 111 of 324, a 34 percent connect rate.

But Sonsona did enough to have two of the judges see him as the winner. The 23-year-old from General Santos City improves to 19-1-1 with 15 knockouts. Vazquez, 29, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, is now 23-4-1 with 19 KOs. – Rappler.com