INQUIRER Sports

It?s always disappointing whenever a Filipino loses a boxing crown because of weight problems.

Marvin Sonsona lost his WBO junior bantamweight Championship Saturday in Canada even before he climbed the ring because he couldn?t shed 2.6 pounds to make the required weight of 115.

Ontario boxing rules require pugilists to be weighed on the day of the fight and Sonsona could not make the grade. His handlers decided not to force Sonsona to make the weight limit lest he enter the ring dehydrated and weary from the attempt.

This is in contrast to the rules in Las Vegas and other parts of the boxing world where weigh-ins are done a day before to allow the fighters a chance to recuperate from the dieting. A day-of-the-fight weigh-in prevents the fighters from bulking up too much with a 10-lb limit being set.

The fight still went on and Sonsona was lucky to escape with a draw against gutsy Mexican Alejandro ?Payasito? Hernandez that meant the title is now vacant.

Hernandez should drop the pet name simply because he is nowhere near being a ?little clown.? He took the fight strongly against Sonsona and claimed many of the succeeding rounds after Sonsona?s fiery start.

* * *

The first rule in the first defense of the crown should have been to make the weight.

We can listen to all the valid reasons and excuses for Sonsona?s failure to make it.

It?s just that it?s disappointing when you find out the crown was gone even before the fight started. The totality of the fight is affected, no matter how much you understand boxing.

Battling with weight is normal in boxing. All the great ones who have had to go through the route of the lighter weights have grappled with hunger, steam rooms and added laps of running. But you must make the weight.

Ten years ago in South Korea, I saw a weary Gerry Peñalosa battle hunger to make the weight and defend his crown. He made the sacrifice so that even the quarter of a pound that had to be shed after the first weigh-in was easy to get rid of.

Peñalosa could not imagine entering the ring without his crown on.

* * *

This experience is now part of Sonsona?s learning curve. He will have to make sacrifices to make the weights of the categories he fights in.

He cannot always rely on the reality that his body is still developing and that making certain weights is difficult.

The time will come when he will no longer be able to make that excuse.