Andrew Fruman recaps last night's Rumble at Rama X show.

Marvin Sonsona's rapid ascent to boxing stardom suffered a setback last night.  After a difficult and ultimately unsuccessful week trying to cut weight, the teenage phenom struggled mightily in the face of a determined challenge from underdog Alejandro Hernandez.

Having lost his title earlier in the morning after weighing in 2.6 pounds over the 115 pound limit, Sonsona was lucky he didn’t walk out of the Casino Rama ring with the first loss on his record. Instead, he escaped with a draw – 115-113, 113-115 and 114-114 - which seemed a little generous to the Filipino southpaw, as he was out-worked for much of the fight.

Clearly the bigger man in the ring, Sonsona was much the stronger of the two fighters in the early going. Unloading with both hands, he easily took the opening two frames, and looked well on his way to making it a short night’s work.

But after weathering the early storm, Hernandez gradually found his footing in the bout and by the mid-rounds was starting to boss the contest. Managing to successfully evade Sonsona’s counters, he did excellent work in close, as he landed quick little shots with regularity to the body and head.

By this stage, Sonsona was fighting only in spurts, and while he was trying to find spots to counter, he was rarely standing his ground and ripping. Instead he was allowing Hernandez to command the space, as he retreated under a steady stream of pressure.

Occasionally Sonsona would try and rally, and there were a few moments in the second half of the fight where he managed to press Hernandez into the ropes and unload. But his success during these bursts was kept in check by Hernandez, who did a nice job of rolling with the shots, before slipping away and immediately returning fire.

There was one particularly telling moment in the 11th, when Sonsona had Hernandez backed into a corner and after firing off a multi-punch salvo, found himself on the receiving end of a beautiful two punch combination. Sonsona’s head snapped back as the punches landed in quick succession.

Overall it was a quality fight - and clearly the best on the show.

After the bout, Sonsona greeted the press with an ice pack on his left hand – an injury he said occurred during the 3rd round. According to promoter Sampson Lewkowicz, Sonsona is scheduled to fight in Manila in February, but the hand situation could postpone that appearance.  As getting down to 117 ½ was a struggle, the plan is for Sonsona to skip the bantwamweight class and jump to 122 for his next fight.

The kid didn't meet the big expectations fans had for him this time out, but he still showed guts.  Given the weight situation and the resulting stamina issues combined with the hand injury, it must be said that Sonsona deserves credit for hanging in there.

As for Hernandez, perhaps he'll get another shot at the vacant belt.  He deserves it.

On the under-card...

Steve Molitor won a lopsided but uninspiring 8 round decision over Argentinean Jose Saez.  There was little for the crowd to get enthused about as Saez played spoiler, staying on the outside and forcing Molitor - a natural counter-puncher - to do most of the leading.

In the 6th, Molitor stunned Saez with a straight left before driving the visitng man into the ropes, only to suffer the indignity of being sent to the canvas by a counter left.  The shot caught Molitor coming in, and while he claimed after the bout that he was off-balance, the knockdown was legit and Molitor didn't seem quite himself for the rest of the round.

Promoter Alan Tremblay will be looking to try and line up a title shot for Molitor in March, with the most likely opponent being Takalani Ndlovu.

Filipino youngster Ciso Morales won a majority 8 round decision over Miguel Gonzalez in an 8 rounder.  The scores were 77-75, 76-76 and 78-74.  There were more than a few people in attendance that felt Gonzalez may have been the better man, and perhaps a draw would have been the fairest result.

Canadian heavyweight Greg Kielsa won 60-54 on all 3 cards against American Jason Bergman in a bout short of thrills.

Two Ontario welterweights, Justin Fountain of Hamilton and Frank Abbiw of London, battled to a 4 round draw.  This was the second bout between the two, with Fountain winning the last meeting on the previous Rumble at Rama show.

Felix Mercedes of Buffalo, improved his record to 4-0 with a 3rd round TKO over Calgary's Todd Furler.  The bout really should have been stopped at the end of the 2nd, as Furler was completely out of it and couldn't make it back to his corner without stumbling to the canvas.

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SBN coverage of Marvin Sonsona v. Alejandro Hernandez (TSN)