Fightnews sat down with former WBC junior flyweight champ Brian Viloria (19-1-1, 12KO) as he took part of a special press conference held in San Diego, CA this past week. The conference was to announce the Pay per View event for April 14th from the Alamadome in San Antonio, TX, dubbed “Blaze of Glory” which is headlined by no other than Filipino sensation Manny Pacquiao defending his WBC super featherweight international title versus undefeated Jorge Solis of Mexico. Also on the fight card is the super flyweight showdown for the WBC strap between tough Mexican warriors Jorge Arce versus Cristian Mijares and in another step towards his rumored war with veteran Arturo Gatti, the son of a legend Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will face Anthony Shuller. Viloria prepares himself for his contest versus Mexico City’s Edgar Sosa (26-5, 14KO) for the vacant WBC title that once he held. The belt was vacated when Omar Nino Romero was stripped of it when his post fight drug test results were positive for a banned substance after he retained the belt via draw despite being knocked down twice in a rematch against Viloria last November. Nino previously won an upset unanimous decision against Viloria in Las Vegas last year to win the WBC junior flyweight title. In this candid interview, Viloria gives his thoughts on his upcoming fight and having to get ready for this title challenge with a new trainer.
What do you know about Edgar Sosa?
Good technical fighter who has a great jab and I know he will do a lot of lateral movement so I will have to try to keep the pressure on him. I need to push him back and try to see if I can get him to go backwards.
As far as your two previous fights with Omar Nino Romero, the loss and the draw, how important is this fight for your career?
Very important to me, I need to not only win this fight but look good doing so. I think this very seriously and I am really not thinking about any other fight. I have been training really hard with Joe Goosen for the past month and a half and with less than a month to go and I have been very happy with him doing a lot of technical work, refining my style, being more of the aggressor trying not to go back like I did a little bit in my last couple of fights. I am taking this fight very seriously.
Is this the first fight you’ve worked with Joe Goossen?
This is my first fight I’ve worked with Goossen, Freddie Roach has been busy with other fighters especially with Oscar de la Hoya and Joe just stepped up to the plate and offered his help and expertise and I gladly wanted to see how we would work out and basically made an intermarriage that was pretty good and I am comfortable with him so yeah this is my first fight with Joe and so far we have been clicking well together and he has been preparing me very well for the 14th.
Was Joe Goossen your first choice after Freddie Roach?
Yes, there were a few coaches that I was looking to helping me and I sat down with Freddie before we made any decision. He was alright with, you know Freddie trained me from the beginning of my career but it was mutual understanding that it was better for me to find a coach that would work with me 24/7 and not have to cut his time for other fighters so Joe was there and he offered his help and we took it.
Is it going to be Joe Goossen with the seconds from the Wild Card gym or is it going to be a full Joe Goossen team?
Basically right now it is just Joe, we will see who will work the corner but as of right now it’s just Joe and I working really hard in the gym.
Are you will be going back to Freddie after this fight?
Right now it is not really clear yet, I work with Freddie, I love working with Freddie but we will see down the line, God knows, I don’t really know what is going to happen after this fight, I’m just really focusing, I’m not really thinking what needs to happen after the fight.
I know that you did mention that you are not looking past this fight but do you think that there are a lot of fights for you after this one at 108 lbs.?
Of course, few more maybe I will move up to 112 lbs. I really would like to fight against Kameda in Japan or maybe doing a unification fight when I win this title, there are a lot of options for me but I am just going to look at one fight at a time.
