By Ian S Palmer
Featherweight Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. of Puerto Rico will be meeting Marvin Sonsona of the Philippines in a rematch this Saturday, June 7 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Vazquez stopped Sonsona in the fourth round the first time they met four years ago. This 10-round bout is for the vacant NABF Title and can be viewed in the U.S. on HBO pay-per-view and Canadians can also see it on PPV. It’s on the undercard of the Sergio Martinez vs Miguel Cotto main event.
The 23-year-old southpaw Sonsona enters the fight with an impressive record of 18-1-1 with 15 Kos with his only loss being the one to Vazquez. He last fought in February when he beat Akifumi Shimoda by a third-round KO. The 29-year-old Vazquez has a 23-3-1 mark with 19 Kos to his name. His last outing was back in September and he took care of Guillermo Avila by way of a 12-round unanimous decision. However, he had lost half of his previous six bouts including a 12th-round stoppage by Jorge Arce in 2011 and a split decision to Nonito Donaire in 2012.
Vazquez won the vacant WBO (World Boxing Organization) junior featherweight title with his win over Sonsona in 2010 and then defended it twice over the next 15 months with a 10th-round KO over Zsolt Bedak and then an 11th-round stoppage over Ivan Hernandez. Vazquez regained his WBO International junior featherweight title in September with his win over Avila. He’s presently ranked number 14 in the world by both the WBO and WBC.
Sonsona won the WBO junior bantamweight crown back in 2009 when he was just 19 with a unanimous decision against Jose Lopez. His first defense against Alejandro Hernandez ended in a draw and he then jumped up a couple of weight classes in 2010 when he met Vazquez for the WBO junior featherweight belt. He’s won four in a row since being knocked out with this last three coming by KO. He won the WBO International featherweight crown with his stoppage over Shimda in February. Sonsona’s ranked fourth in the world by the WBA while the WBC has him at seven and the IBF ranks him ninth.
Vazquez can’t afford to take Sonsona lightly in this rematch since the Filipino has improved quite a bit since their first meeting. But while he’s gotten better, Sonsona has also been relatively inactive with just four fights in the past four years. Vazquez said Sonsona’s a very good boxer and he’s definitely not going to be looking past him when the bell rings Saturday night. Sonsona of course is looking to avenge his KO loss, which was the result of a left hook to the body, so needs no extra motivation.
Prediction
Having stopped Sonsona before will be a huge confidence builder for Vazquez even if it was four years ago. Sonsona has been inactive for the main part since then and took a shine to the party-life while taking a 20-month break. Vazquez has more experience and faced tougher opposition during his career. Sonsona’s probably a Grade B boxer at the moment and while Vazquez may be considered to be the same he should be able to take care of Sonsona again, but he may have to go the distance to do it.
