HE FACED A MEXICAN TOY BULLDOG NICKnamed Payasito (small clown) but it was Marvin Sonsona who ended up a bigger joke inside the ring on Sunday.

For the record, the fight did not turn into a circus.

It was not also funny that Sonsona stepped on the weighing scales a kilo over the 115-pound limit.

This caused him to lose his world super flyweight crown without receiving a single punch.

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It was not the first time this had happened to a Filipino boxer.

But in this win-win season, highlighted by Manny Pacquiao?s historic seventh world crown, Sonsona?s forgettable showing in Ontario also proved to be a grand absurdity.

He was both unfit and incompetent.

He was not only overweight.

He was in no condition to sustain a decent stand.

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OK, his handlers readily insisted Sonsona was no fool on the hill.

They offered the excuse that Sonsona, 19, suddenly grew beyond the super flyweight class.

Not his fault, of course.

Ed Picson, executive director of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, found that excuse rather lame, however.

Sonsona had all the time to trim down. Or did he?

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Anyway, granting that he had grown fantastically by nearly two inches in a couple of months, should this be a valid excuse for Sonsona not to train properly?

There could be more alibis forthcoming, but one thing must be made clear.

Failure to make the weight and to train sufficiently doesn?t reside in one and the same address.

If his handlers found that funny, majority of fans out in the streets yesterday felt otherwise.

Repeat: there?s a world of difference between checking in for a fight unprepared and coming in overweight.

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The disappointment over Sonsona, readily hyped as a future Pacquiao following his fantastic world crown victory last September, was overwhelming.

Yesterday, there was not one fan in the Mandaluyong wet market area who bought Sonsona?s cheap alibis.

When first interviewed, Sonsona?who visibly escaped with a draw only on the sympathetic votes of two judges?said he was in poor physical condition.

Then, in a silly twist, he claimed he hurt his left hand?or was it the right, or both??in the third round.

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Actually, Sonsona should be credited for a sensational start when he dominated Mexican Alejandro Hernandez in the first two rounds.

But after Payasito changed shoes and got better tracking in the third round, he turned the tide by digging into the body and chasing the elongated but baffled Sonsona from post to post.

Mexican fans must have been thrilled no end as Sonsona, who showed up in a punk get-up complete with white Santa stockings and gleaming multi-colored hairdo, shook like a troubled Christmas tree reeling from the Mexican fusillade.

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Sonsona also appeared like a joyless clown at the end of the Mardi Gras.

After the scores were read, the peppery Mexican, who took the last three rounds and finished strong, shook his head in disbelief.

The bout ended up a dirty joke.

Meanwhile, Sonsona, fagged out, found the gall to celebrate and raise both hands.

His manager must take time out to tell Sonsona the joke was on him.