JOSE LOPEZ vs MARVIN SONSONA

A youth versus experience gap has seldom been more pronounced than the one between unbeaten Filipino teenager Filipino Marvin Sonsona and Puerto Rican veteran Jose “Carita” Lopez, who meet at Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada on Friday for Lopez’s WBO junior bantam title.

The left-handed Sonsona is just 19 and has had only 13 professional fights (12 KO wins, one win by decision), and he has never been past the fifth round. Lopez, 37, has had 48 fights and he has been the 12-round championship distance nine times.

I know that a 17-year-old Wilfred Benitez outscored the seasoned Antonio “Kid Pambele” Cervantes, who had not been beaten in four years, but at least the skilful young Puerto Rican had taken part in 25 fights and had been the 10-round distance three times. Benitez was at home in San Juan, too, while Sonsona is far away in a totally different culture to the one to which he is accustomed, although he is the house fighter on a show presented by Orion Sports Management, which promotes the Filipino in conjunction with the Florida outfit, Warriors Boxing.

Orion president Allan Tremblay sees Sonsona as an emerging superstar who can attract a following among the large Filipino community in the Toronto area, although he admits there has been criticism that the fight is coming too soon for the young man.

Lopez represents a huge step up in class for Sonsona. The Puerto Rican is unbeaten in the last eight years, and finally became champ — at the fourth attempt — when he clearly outpointed tough Thai Pramuansak in Puerto Rico last March.

The last fighter to beat Lopez was Fernando Montiel, and he had the accomplished Mexican fighter on the floor in a spirited bout that I was fortunate enough to have seen from ringside in Reno.

Sonsona, meanwhile, has beaten only one boxer of any real international standing, and that was the seasoned Thai, Wandee, whom he flattened in the second round with a big left hand from his southpaw stance to win the WBO Oriental 112-pound title. Wandee, however, was the smaller man with a lot of wear on him (the Thai started boxing as a 15-year-old in the 105-pound division) and he had been knocked out by Daiki Kameda in Japan in his last fight.

Lopez, of course, has had a long career, but he seemed to be fighting as well as he has ever done in his last contest. To make Sonsona’s task appear even more daunting, he is moving up three pounds from the flyweight division to meet a sturdy 115-pounder although Sonsona is two inches taller.

This is all beginning to like a leap too far for Sonsona, but he shouldn’t be underestimated. He is tall, a southpaw, can punch and has breezed past everyone put in front of him.

There is always the chance, too, that Sonsona just might turn out to be the new Manny Pacquiao — but we won’t know until after Friday’s fight. (The bout is being televised on a one-night delay by TSN in Canada: 11:30 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday.)

“We’ve taken a little criticism for rolling the dice with the kid this early in the game, but high risk, high reward and we think he can do it,” promoter Tremblay said over the phone from Toronto on Monday.

The international agent Sampson Lewkowicz introduced Sonsona to Tremblay, and the team has high hopes for the fighter.

“We set out to find, sort of capture if you will, that frenzy that Pacquiao has created in the Filipino community — because there’s a rather large one here — and we have a consortium of us with him, and we’re just delighted to have him,” Tremblay said.

“We’ve had him here working out and he looks tremendous. When he hits those pads, it sounds like thunder. Power! You just don’t see that kind of power at that weight. He just torques into his punches. He’s moved a couple of sparring partners here who were much bigger than him — he shook ’em. He’s got the punch, and his reflexes are lightning fast.

“One of our partners is over in the Philippines, ourselves, Sampson and Warriors Boxing in the States, so we can move him in and out of every one of those marketplaces depending where the best fit is at the time.

“We hope he’ll have a long career — he just turned 19 three weeks ago. Obviously we’re panning towards the Filipino community and we expect to have a full house with a lot of Filipino fans.

“What I think will happen here, I think he’ll stay away from Lopez in the early stages, and when he counters, I think Lopez will be surprised by the power coming back and I think Marvin will stop him late — and that’s a hell of a statement, because Lopez has never been stopped. This kid, aside from being a good boxer, he’s got the size advantage, he was a tremendous amateur, and he’s got the power, and I think that combination will prove to be enough. I wouldn’t put him in if I didn’t think he had a great chance.”

The fight is certainly intriguing because we simply cannot be sure how good Sonsona really is, but on paper Lopez, with his vast experience and his toughness and pressure-fighter style, looks like being too much for the youngster. If, however, Sonsona can hurt Lopez with the left hand, move out of the way and counter, he might be able to enjoy a highly successful night. Everyone knows that styles make fights, and it is possible that Sonsona has the style — and the punch — to pull off the upset.

As a straight pick, I will have to go with Lopez, perhaps even on a late stoppage, but some experienced boxing people obviously feel that Sonsona might be something special and, for the players, the Filipino might be considered worth a tickle if the sportsbook odds are sufficiently enticing.

I suppose I will have to stay away from the internet and screen incoming phone calls all day on Saturday so that I will be able to watch the bout with the result unknown on Saturday — but I think it will be worth it.