SONSONA, MEPRANUM WERE SPECTACULAR
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 Mar 2010
Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s conditioning expert Alex Ariza and trusted adviser Michael Koncz reflected the consensus of members of Team Pacquiao that promising youngsters Eden Sonsona and Richie Mepranum were both spectacular in their separate wins over formidable opponents over the weekend in Texas.
The 22 year old southpaw Mepranum from Sarangani where Pacquiao is seeking a congressional seat scored a unanimous ten round decision over previously undefeated Mexican KO artist Hernan “Tyson” Marquez who had a record of 27-0 with 20 knockouts going into the fight against the Filipino who had a mere 3 knockouts in 16 wins as against one defeat and one draw.
Ariza who watched the fight said “it was one of the most exciting fights I’ve seen in a long, long time. Mepranum’s relentlessness, what a phenomenal chin he had because he took some big shots and he showed that true what I call Filipino mentality. He got caught but just kept coming forward despite the fact that ‘Tyson” was a tremendous puncher. Richie was just taking big shots and was giving him.”
Ariza told us that Mepranum is still very young but “if he was a little bit older and he would get stronger I am convinced 100 percent he would have knocked him (Marquez) out. What a heart.”
The conditioning expert confessed “I became a fan overnight watching him. That’s for sure. I loved watching him sparring in the gym (Wild Card). I was excited just by the way he moves, he has great footwork but watching him in action man, I became a fan.”
Koncz told us after arriving in Los Angeles aboard the specially chartered “Air Pacquiao” jet from Dallas that Mepranum was “unbelievable. He showed a lot of heart, lot of guts but he scared me a couple of times because he decided to go toe-to-toe with a power puncher and at times he showed his real boxing skill.”
Koncz revealed that he had been informed by the WBO whose president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel was at ringside that Mepranum “would fight for the world title in his next fight” but no other details were available.
It appeared that after his impressive win over Marquez to capture the WBC USNBC super flyweight title, Mepranum would move up ahead of Marquez in the world ratings where the Mexican is ranked No. 5 by the WBC, No. 6 by the WBA, No. 9 by the WBO and No. 12 by the IBF. Mepranum on the other hand is only rated No. 10 by the WBA and No. 11 by the WBO.
Koncz said that Top Rank was “ecstatic” over the 8th round knockout of 21 year old Sonsona over veteran and former world champion Mauricio Pastrana of Colombia. He said the Top Rank people told him “the knockout by Sonsona matched Pacquiao’s knockout of (Ricky) Hatton.”
In fact, Pastrana was taken to hospital after the devastating knockout where the referee didn't even bother to count since the former world champion was out cold.
It was the prot?g? of the late Rod Nazario’s second successive stoppage in the US where he also made his debut on the undercard of the Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto showdown and won by a smashing 2nd round TKO over Eilon Kedem last November. Sonsona who is managed by Nazario's son Rommel and whose career is handled in the US by Pacquiao and Koncz then returned home to win the Philippine bantamweight title with a brutal 45 second first round knockout over Monico Laurente last December.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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