SORRY TEAM SOSA, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY WRONG ABOUT MAYOL
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 26 Nov 2009
After Edgar Sosa lost his WBC Light Flyweight title to Rodel Mayol, Team Sosa immediately filed a protest with the WBC stating that the head clash that occurred in the fight was intentionally done by Mayol.
They also branded Mayol as a dishonest and dirty fighter.
Team Sosa wanted WBC to erase the legal decision made by the local Mexican commission and declare the fight as “no contest”. In so doing Sosa gets to keep his title.
I said it then and I say it again. I know our fighter and I am sure as hell he did not intentionally used his head as a weapon to win the title. Mayol is not that kind of a fighter.
In fact, all through the night after the fight, Mayol was not whooping it out like us. Rather that exult about his new status, he was feeling sad for Sosa. “Kawawa naman siya, sana gumaling siya kaagad” (I feel sorry for him, I hope he gets well soon) And, looking in his eyes I can see that he meant what he said. With that, I am positive he had not intended to hurt Sosa, particularly with a head butt as many claimed.
It is worthwhile to note that WBC disagreed with Team Sosa and kept the ruling of the local commission intact. As they indicated, if they reversed the ruling arbitrarily, there will be chaos.
I have lots of respect for Dr. Fausto Daniel Garcia, the promoter of Sosa. In fact it seems he felt the same towards me. Otherwise, he would not have called me over to share the pre- operative x-rays and have a discussion about the findings doctor to doctor.
However, I totally disagree with him in branding Mayol as dishonest and a dirty fighter.
Mayol is a decent young man who follows the rules. Certainly, he will not cheat to win a fight.
In all fairness however, the tapes indeed showed that the heads clashed. Mayol threw a right body hook and in order to reach Sosa, he had to bend down slightly. Sosa in a defensive move lowered his hands and his head and lurched forward. It was at that moment that the heads clashed. Mayol was hit on the side of his head and Sosa, in his left face.
If there was an intentional butt, Mayol would have been hit on the top of the head or the forehead.
Dr Garcia’s decision to move Sosa up to 112 lbs and challenge guys in that higher weight class is a good call. An excellent call I must add.
Sosa is no longer capable of maintaining 108 lbs. He was drained to get to 108 lb.
In fact, we have doubt that he really made weight.
During the weigh-in Sosa barely stepped on the scales and someone yelled “49 kg” and he got off fast. We could have demanded that he stood there for at least a few seconds to allow us to see the scales. But we just let it go because we saw him looking so dry. His lips were ashen and his tongue was white, a sure sign of dehydration. We knew then he will not have anything to beat Mayol who came in tip-top condition.
After round one was over, Jesse Arevalo asked Mayol how he felt. His reply was “I am good - his punch don’t have a zip.”
Thus, Mayol was given the go signal for the kill.
Unfortunately, there was a head clash in the second round.
We sincerely wished it did not happen.
But, it would not have mattered. With the conditions of both fighters, we were confident Mayol would have knocked out Sosa.
We thank the WBC, (Don Jose and Mauricio Sulaiman) for their fairness. Their decision adds even more to our faith on the system.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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