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Philippines, 06 May 2024 |
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TEAM SOSA SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON TRAINING RATHER THAN SOUR-GRAPING By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Tue, 24 Nov 2009  Boxing losses bring different reactions from those who ended up on the short end. Some graciously accept defeat and live to train and fight another time. Others become so disconsolate that they open their mouths without thinking through the processes that led to the defeat. Sour-grapping, if you will. Case in point. Team Edgar Sosa. Reports from “fightnews.com” indicate that Sosa and his team are crying foul. What else could be expected when they lost a fight in front of their home crowd? It's one thing losing a fight but it’s another thing losing it in front of friends and family. The sting is far greater and it goes in deeper. Jacques Deschamps, Sosa’s manager accused Mayol of intentionally head-butting Sosa to win the fight. He even cited the past two performances of Mayol against Ivan Calderon as evidence that Mayol is a dirty fighter. Nothing could be so far from the truth! I know Mayol better than Deschamps. Thus I say, Deschamps is just crying foul and looking for excuses as to why Sosa lost the fight. He simply ignored the fact that Sosa lost because they failed to prepare him correctly. True, Sosa and Mayol clashed heads and Sosa was on the wrong end of the stick. I do not condone head butts, particularly those intentionally done. I feel the same about low blows and use of elbows as well. But Deschamps should have a fair-minded look at the incident that led to the head clash before he starts making accusations. Mayol threw a right body hook. In order to do that, he had to bend slightly lower to reach Sosa’s body. But Sosa, with all his experiences in fighting saw the blow coming so he brought his head down and his hands low in an effort to soften or perhaps block the body blow coming from Mayol. In so doing he exposed his face. (See photo) It was at that particular moment when their heads clashed. Sosa, whose head was in a higher position got hit on the cheek bone while Mayol got hit on the left temple area. If Mayol intended to head butt Sosa, he would have used his forehead. It would be far easier that way. The fact that Mayol got hit low on the temple area (side of the head) indicate that the clash of heads was accidental. But be that as it may, the referee, Robert Ramirez of Puerto Rico exercised his options to deduct a point from Mayol. That is well and good as the rules discussed a day before the fight allowed him to do so. He could have ignored it just as well or deducted points from each fighter. He had that option too. Just because he did deduct a point from Mayol does not necessarily mean that Mayol had bad intentions. The point was deducted for an accidental head butt. Not intentional. The fact of the matter is Ramirez did the right thing by giving Sosa enough time to recover and asking the ring doctor to check on Sosa’s injury. He was following the rules as a good referee should. The doctor indicated that Sosa was okay to continue so Ramirez allowed the fight to continue. That in itself is enough reason to conclude that the defeat was not because of the accidental clash of heads. If the doctor found it fit to stop the fight because of the head clash, he would have recommended to the referee that the fight be stopped. Viewing the video of the fight clearly indicates that Sosa was okay to continue. In fact he threw some decent shots when the fight resumed. However, when he got hit by Mayol’s hard left hook, he went down. Succeeding combinations after the fight resumed spelled his doom. Did the clash of heads lead to the defeat of Sosa? Unlike Team Sosa, I can not absolutely say that for sure! Could the left hook that hit flushed on his face and resulted in a knock-down do the same? No doubt about it! But I am sure Team Sosa would not agree. Sosa also suffered fractures in his face. From the pre-operative x-rays I saw, there were fractures on the floor of the orbit, the zygomatic process and the left maxilla area. I can not for certain tell that the fractures where from the head clash. They could have been as a result of the heavy shots he absorbed from Mayol or even a combination of both. At any rate, from our perspective, I think Sosa’s defeat has a lot more to do with his conditioning and weight management than the clash of heads. But Team Sosa is in denial. Why do we say that? We were up close to Sosa during the weigh-in and we saw his lip dry and when he licked his lips to wet them, we saw his tongue white and dry. Sosa also appeared gaunt and drained. Then, when we saw him an hour before the fight in his dressing room as we monitored the taping of his hands, he did not appear gaunt anymore. But he looked like he was bloated. One team member kept on putting something in his mouth that appeared like crushed candy or something to keep stimulating his saliva. We also had information that during the half an hour trip back on the bus from Chiapa del Gorzo (where the weight-in occurred) back to the hotel, Sosa consumed 5 bottles of Gatorade. With all that information in mind, Jesse Arevalo instructed Mayol to attack in the first few rounds to exhaust Sosa and possibly KO him before round 5. But, that did not happen. Mayol stopped him within two. And with that Mayol won the WBC Light Flyweight title! Perhaps its time for Sosa to move up to 112 lbs.or even 115 lbs. so as not have any weight problems anymore. We think asking the guy to continually fight at 108 is asking too much from him. But the decision to remain at 108 lbs is in Sosa and his manager’s hands. However, if he stays at 108 lbs demand a re-match, Mayol should have no problem giving it to him. But certainly not in Mexico. It is time for Sosa to come up to the US or even in Manila to challenge Mayol. After all what’s fair is fair. In the meantime, if the re-match can be negotiated, it will do Team Sosa good if they stop sour-grapping and put the defeat on the back burner and concentrate on Sosa’s conditioning and weight management instead. Then they could give Mayol a good run for his money! But that still does not mean that he could win. Mayol is simply too good for Sosa. Top photo: The headbutt incident during the Sosa-Mayol fight last Saturday in Mexico. Photo by JesusContreras / Boxeo de Gala. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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