Friday, 31 July 2026 · Philippines
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AFTER FOUR ROUNDS OF SPARRING VILORIA AND NIETES ARE READY TO GO

After four rounds of sparring with WBO light flyweight champion Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes, former two division world champion Brian Viloria pronounces they are both ?ready to go? on October 17 with Viloria facing the biggest challenge of his career against undefeated pound for pound No.1 flyweight champion Roman ?Chocolatito? Gonzalez of Nicaragua at Madison Square Garden and Nietes making the eighth defense of his title against Juan ?Pinky? Alejo, Mexico?s flyweight champion at the StubHub Center in Carson City, C alifornia on the same day.

After the sparring, Viloria who has a record of 36-4 with 22 knockouts told the New Standard/boxingmirror.com that we went ?four good rounds.? He described Nietes, the longest reigning Filipino world champion as a ? very technical fighter who looks in great shape and he too looks ready to go.?

He said the sparring session would help ?both of us a lot? even as Viloria maintained ?we are going to do the Philippines proud.?

Freddie Roach?s assistant trainer Marvin Somodio who works with Viloria much of the time said the sparring was ?great? and that Nietes who sports a record of 36-1-4 with 21 knockouts ?gave Brian a good workout. Both of them looked good and it was fine for both of them.?

He said Nietes ?is fast and is good? and the consensus is he should be able to handle the Mexican champion whose record is 21-3 with 13 knockouts.

Somodio noted that Viloria?s stamina which was somewhat of a concern in his previous fights was ?good? pointing out that ?it's important that he doesn?t fade in the later rounds.?

Viloria is only one pound over the flyweight limit and is sharply focused for the showdown with the undefeated Gonzalez whose record is a formidable 43-0 with 37 knockouts.

Nietes? trainer Edmund Villamor told us the sparring was ?very good and both fighters showed how good they are.?

Nietes and Viloria will spar six rounds again on Wednesday.

The three other ALA fighters, brothers Jason and Prince Albert Pagara and Mark ?Magnifico? Magsayo who are also featured on the StubHub fight card which is being staged by ALA Promotions in cooperation with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN and the widely watched TFC, The Filipino Channel, sparred four rounds each and looked fit and ready.

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