FROM JOURNEYMAN TO WORLD CHAMPION, SONNY BOY JARO SEEKS GLORY ONCE MORE
By Manny Piñol
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 27 Jun 2014
Sonny Boy Jaro is a fighter who in the boxing world is called a journeyman.
He fears nobody and takes fights, even against those who are far superior in skills than him, on short notice and is willing to travel to any part of the world from South America to South Africa in search for the chance to win a big fight.
At 32, he has faced almost all of the big names in the flyweight division - Giovanni Segura and Edgar Sosa among them.
When he was 30 years old with a record of 33 wins and 10 losses and almost at the verge of giving up on his dream of winning a big fight, Jaro was asked to fight legendary Thai world champion Pongsaklek Wongjonkam on short notice in Chonburi, Thailand.
Pongsaklek, considered as one of the best flyweights in the world and highly rated by the Ring Magazine, is a boxing hero in Thailand and when he took on Jaro he had a record of 83 wins with only 3 losses.
"Sonny Boy was doing the laundry at the back of his house when I asked him if he was willing to fight Pongsaklek," said Aljoe Jaro, his manager.
Sonny Boy shocked Thailand by sending Pongsaklek to the canvas in the first and third rounds and finally scoring to knockdowns in the sixth to end the fight and win the World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight champion.
All of a sudden the journeyman became the toast of Philippine boxing.
But just like the many other stories on the career of Filipino boxers, Sonny Boy's reign as world champion was short.
With no Philippine promoter willing to stage his title defense to give him a degree of protection, the Jaros, the boxer and the manager, agreed to defend the title in Japan against Toshiyuki Igarashi.
And as many had feared, Sonny Boy Jaro lost his WBC title in his first defense by a controversial split decision as shown by the apparently incoherent scoring which saw boxing judge Luis Escalona seeing Jaro the winner by 116-112 while judges David Mendoza scored it 112-116 and Kyung Ha Shin 113-115 in favor of the hometown boxer.
Sonny Boy lost two more fights after that heartbreaking loss to Igarashi before bouncing back with two successive victories.
On Saturday, at age 32, Sonny Boy will continue on his comeback trail and take on a less dangerous opponent, Indonesian Ichal Tobida, in a more friendly territory, Davao City, for the Superflyweight Title of a newly-organized regional boxing body, the Asian Boxing Federation.
While Tobida has won three of last four fights by knockout, he is not expected to be as tough as Pongsaklek, Segura or Sosa.
Sonny Boy Jaro is expected to continue his march to redemption and glory again.
But he needs a little more protection and better career management, especially this late in his career.
The involvement of popular spiritual leader Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy in sports, especially boxing, may yet give Sonny Boy Jaro and other boxers like him the protection and support they need.
"I pity our boxers because they always get cheated in fights in foreign lands," said Pastor Quiboloy shortly after he decided to establish a sports management group, the Sonshine Sports Management.
Sonny Boy's fight on Saturday will be the main bout in the first staging of "The Boxing Revolution" series which will be held initially at the fully-airconditioned Almendras Gymnasium in Davao City.
With the launching of a new cable TV channel, the Philippine Sports Channel under the Sonshine Media Network, Inc. owned by Pastor Quiboloy's congregation, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, it is expected that the boxers appearing in "The Boxing Revolution" will get the exposure and support they need to move forward in their career.
Already, boxing is undergoing a virtual shape up or revolution as Pastor Quiboloy has asked that boxers appearing in "The Boxing Revolution" be given double the fee they get from other promotions.
With this support, Sonny Boy Jaro who rose from the ranks of journeymen to become a world champion, may yet rise again even this late in his life.
For the younger boxers who have signed up with Sonshine Sports Management, they could be virtually taking on the road to fame and fortune paved by a religious leader who deeply loves sports and who desires to discover the best in the Filipinos.
(Photo caption: Sonny Boy Jaro and Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy with the people and boxers behind Sonshine Sports Management.)
Sonny Boy Jaro (top photo) and Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy with the people and boxers behind Sonshine Sports Management (above photo).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Manny Piñol.
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