Honolulu, HI ? Working on a great jab and crisp combinations, IBF light flyweight champion Brian Viloria retained his belt by wide unanimous decision victory of Jesus Iribe of Mexico at the Blaisdell Arena here Saturday night in front of 4,000 widely cheering hometown crowd. The scores were 118-110, 117-112 and 117-111 all for the Waipahu-native 'Hawaain Punch'.
Viloria fought intelligently all night beating to the punch the bigger and heavier Iribe who, to his own credit, refused to wilt under constant fire and, like a true Mexican warrior, tried to put up a gallant fight throughout the contest.
The highlight of the evening came in the 12th and final round when Viloria, although leading comfortably, showed heart and valor by engaging toe-to-toe with Iribe, who himself was a willing customer, perhaps sensing his only chance to win the fight, as the crowd roared in approval and jubilation to the non-stop action in the last 3 minutes of the contest. The two warriors earned the applause of the crowd at the end of the highly entertaining fight.
Viloria has now improved to 26-2-0 (15 KOs) while Iribe dropped to 15-6-5 (9KOs).
UNIFICATION BOUT
During the post-fight press conference, Viloria's manager, Gary Gittelsohn, revealed that they are eyeing a unification bout with the winner of WBO light flyweight championship bout between defending champion Ivan Calderon of Puerto Rico and the Philippines' Rodel Mayol who will duke it out on Sep. 12 in Puerto Rico. Calderon himself was eyeing a unification bout with Viloria even before his first fight with Mayol.
The 'Island Assault' boxing event, which brought back boxing to this island after a long while, was promoted by Solar Sports in association with Tom Moffatt Production.
Top photo: Viloria (C) is declared winner by the referee.
Viloria (R) uses the right straight as the main weapon to dominated Iribe.
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