A brief round-up of the weekend's action;

MARVELOUS SONSONA WINS WORLD TITLE

Reigning Champion Lopez of Puerto Rico had fought for various flyweight titles four times but could never get over the hump. Finally, in March, he won a unanimous decision against Thailand's Pramuansak Posuwan to win a vacant title at junior bantamweight. However, his reign didn't last very long, as Sonsona beat him in his first defense.

Sonsona, a 19-year-old southpaw from Manny Pacquiao's hometown of General Santos City in the Philippines, is on a tear. After going the four-round distance in his pro debut, he scored 12 consecutive knockouts until meeting the durable Lopez. Sonsona's adviser, Sampson Lewkowicz, raves about Sonsona. Lewkowicz knows a thing or two about young, southpaw Filipino sensations as he was the person responsible for bringing Pacquiao to the United States for his super-bantamweight title shot against Lehlo Ledwaba.

Pacquiao, of course, was also only 19 when he won his first world title at flyweight. Lewkowicz has said over and over that Sonsona is the best young Filipino fighter he has seen since Pacquiao. Sonsona, somewhat untested coming into the fight, sure did his part to live up to that hype against Lopez in a terrific fight. In the fourth round of the rough, physical fight, Sonsona landed a wicked left hand that dropped Lopez between the bottom two ring ropes and had him badly dazed.

But Lopez regrouped and had some success in the middle rounds. He worked Sonsona's body well, but eventually had two points deducted for a low blow right at the end of the eighth round, which was probably Lopez's best round of the bout. It was a terrible call by referee Rocky Zolnierczyk, especially making it two points, on a very borderline, almost phantom shot. It turned out not to impact the outcome.

Considering Sonsona had never been past five rounds, it was an impressive performance for the youngster against such a battle-tested veteran in a very competitive fight. Gary Shaw, the promoter of recognized division champ Vic Darchinyan said he'd be interested in matching Darchinyan with Sonsona in a unification bout.

That's an interesting but probably unlikely fight for the time being. Sonsona has an exciting style and youth on his side. It looks likely that Sonsona's first title defense will come November 21st against an opponent to be named. He could become a major factor in the smaller weight divisions and he'll be unable to shake comparisons to Pacquiao because of their exciting styles and nationality.

CONCEPCION CLAIMS POINTLESS WORLD TITLE

Concepcion joined the WBA's ridiculous party of titleholders. Although there are 17 weight divisions in boxing, the insane WBA now crowns 31 men with either super titles, regular titles, interim titles or titles in recess. It's all so preposterous. In any event, Concepcion, 23, took care of his business in front of a hometown crowd in the main event of a WBA-sponsored "KO Drugs" card, in which the organization donates some of the proceeds to charity.

With all the sanctioning fees it generates from its litany of bogus titles, that's the least the WBA can do. After a dominant performance, Concepcion stopped Mexico's Salado 39 seconds into the final round for his 15th consecutive victory. He hasn't lost since dropping a four-rounder in 2006. Salado, 29, dropped to 2-2 in his past four. He also stopped in the fifth round of a title eliminator in May 2008 by Julio Cesar Miranda. In his only other title opportunity, Salado was held to a draw by then-junior flyweight titlist Ulises Solis in August 2006.