This Saturday night at the Blaisell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, Brian Viloria make the first defense of his IBF jr. flyweight title against Jesus Iribe. Viloria hopes that the second time around as a world champion is much longer and prosperous than his first reign.
When he held the WBC portion of the belt a few years ago, he had the proverbial cup of coffee before giving up the title. It was as if he had wedding ceremony, but couldn’t even get to the honeymoon.
This time, he’d like to stick around a bit.
” It kind of serves as a reminder to me of how quickly things can come and go. So I take that experience with me over to my next run, how quickly it came and went,” Viloria told Maxboxing.” I kind of just look back on that like a big learning experience for me and some things I just need to keep understanding as a reminder for me to know how hard it is to hold onto one.”
Perhaps Viloria took being a titlist for granted. After all, he was a Olympian and was used to winning major tournaments and championships as a amateur. And he was groomed from the very beginning of his pro career to do big things. But the pro game is unforgiving, you can go from being a champion to being just a J.A.G.- just another guy, with one bad night.
” I think I appreciate it more, now, when I did my first world title,” he admits.” Now, I know how fragile it is to hold onto it. I know I need to work twice as hard to keep it every time I step into the ring and I know it’s twice as hard to beat every opponent. So yeah, in a sense I look back on it and I didn’t appreciate it as much.”
After several frustrating attempts to take back his green belt, he was taken to boxing’s version of the Betty Ford Clinic in 2008 by his manager Gary Gittelsohn and Top Rank, as he embarked on a series of fights in rather small- and uncertainly unglamorous- locations. From playing in major league arena’s, Viloria was transported to the Alameda Swap Meet in a gritty, tucked away section of working class Los Angeles.
He began his rehabilitation tour in on January 4Th of that year on a rainy, icy-cold night in a makeshift tent that was packed to the brim with just hard-core boxing fans who had braved the elements.
” It was a humbling experience, it made me humble. It gave me a big look on how much I had to re-start my career and go back to the drawing board. I remember walking into the arena, I was like,’ Jesus, I was fighting in Staples Center not so long ago, now I’m in back of a swap meet.’ People were just passing by and watching this fight go on. It made me humble, it made me appreciate being at the top and how hard it is to stay at that level, even more. All the hard work I had to put into it because I didn’t want to fight there. But I knew I had to start off again and that was just a humbling experience.”
It was all part of a process that saw Viloria not only change trainers, but migrate from Los Angeles to Oxnard, California, where he hooked up with trainer Robert Garcia. The 2008 campaign consisted of five fights, most of which were not televised and came with very little exposure. It was a far cry from having undercard slots on Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view shows.
As the year finally closed, a fight was arranged between him and IBF 108-pound titlist Ulises Solis at the famed Araneta Coliseum in Manila, Philippines. For Viloria, it was this simple- win or find another day job to make ends meet.
” I gave myself an ultimatum, I didn’t even want to think about going back to the swap meet, again. So I just basically told myself, it’s now or never. If I don’t win this fight, then I need to look at different things to get into other than boxing,” he recalled.” That helped motivate me in training, it helped motivate me in a lot of things and just gave me that chance to just lay everything out there without no worries about what happens after. I just told myself,’ If I don’t win this fight- that’s it. That’s it for me. I don’t want to go back to scratch, again. I’m just going to give it my all and see where it’s going to take me.”
On the night of April 19Th, on the first edition of ‘Pinoy Power’, Viloria would jump out to a quick start with a series of booming right hands that staggered the game Mexican in the early stages. But as the fight headed into the middle-to-late rounds, Solis steadily worked his way back into the thick of things and tightened things up. Like in his bouts with Omar Nino and Edgar Sosa, would Viloria find a way to lose?
But instead of folding his tent, he gathered himself in the late rounds and then uncorked a devastating right-hand that sent Solis to the canvas, out cold. This punch will be a leading candidate for ‘Knockout of the Year’.
His manager Garry Gittelsohn just knew that this would not be, as Yogi Berra once famously uttered, de ja vu’ all over again. ” We knew Solis was a very well-conditioned athlete, you look at Solis’ previous fights, we knew that he got better as the rounds went on, he got stronger and we prepared Brian for that. Brian was very well aware that Solis was going to get stronger as the fight went on. I saw Solis doing just that. But after the eighth round- and I remember vividly- I know after the eighth round that Brian had caught his second win and I truly believed that a knockout was in hand.”
Would the ‘Hawaiian Punch’ of 2006 and 2007 pulled through on that particular night?
” Two, three years ago, no,” he admits, flatly.” No, to be honest I don’t think I would’ve ever come close to how I performed that night. I think the struggles that I went through after losing my world title, to going down to the swap meet and fighting my way back up. I think that helped me that night. That whole preparation last year, all the struggles. Every little thing, from wanting to give it up, to changing areas and changing gyms to out here in Oxnard. I think everything just played it’s role to help me prepare for that one night. I don’t think I would’ve been able to pull out that win if those things didn’t happen.”
Life is better as champion. That’s just the way it is. You get paid more, promoters treat you with more respect and fans clamor for you a lot more. It makes life much easier. Outsiders are as fickle as the Dow Jones. Viloria knows all about that harsh reality.
He says with a hearty laugh,” Everyone comes and goes as your stock comes up and down. You’re only as good as your last fight, the way I see it. Another win can help propel my stock, hey, everybody loves a winner. I mean, I see it from my own eyes, everybody comes and goes. When I did lose the world title, I didn’t get no phone calls from anybody, I never received any invitations to any parties.
” It was lonely at the bottom and it’s lonely at the top. But I’d rather be lonely at the top than the other way around.”
If didn’t down Solis he most likely isn’t asked to be a part of the ‘Pinoy Power II’ broadcast crew and he certainly isn’t headlining his own show in his home state.
” It’s virtually dead the sport of boxing, there, and everyone is looking towards this fight to help revive the sport of boxing in Hawaii,” said Viloria.” In that absence the MMA filled that void and BJ Penn and Kendall Grove and these guys who all fight in the UFC kind of help stabilize the fight crowd there and everyones looking to the MMA more. There’s a lot of fans there for boxing, it’s just no one was big enough for everybody to come out there and see anybody fight out there.
” So for me to come back to Hawaii is really special for me. I think it’s more special for the fight fans to have a big card like that happen.”
It’s believed to be the first major championship fight on the islands in over three decades. Perhaps Viloria, can become this regions defining fighter, a commodity who can help boost the popularity of the sport. But he wont be able to do that if he can’t make a long, distinguished run as a champion.
” I think everyone took a lesson, you rarely get a second bite at the apple and I think we all learned some very tough lessons from the first go-around and I think Brian’s talent and his hard work and his dedication the second time around is going to make his present title run a much sweeter experience,” said Gittelsohn, who this time around did not throw his fighter a lavish party to celebrate his world title. The tact here is that the work is now just beginning.” We were thrilled with Brian’s performance versus Solis because he was a prohibitive underdog, he fought truly the best jr. flyweight out there, who was fighting at his best and he had a great night and still Brian won in spectacular fashion. It was a terrific night,” Gittelsohn said.” But we also know, as we were celebrating, that keeping the title is so much more difficult than getting it.”
At age 28, Viloria has matured into a grown man and he feels as though he’s just entering his physical and technical prime as a prizefighter. He’s ready to be a long-standing champion that stacks up title defenses like poker chips. He’s not going back to any swap meet any time soon.
But in retrospect, he looks back on those days( which began and ended his 2008) fondly.
” All of the things that happened with all the venues I ever fought in, I think that’s more memorable than fighting in the Staples Center or fighting in Madison Square Garden. Fighting at the Alameda Swap Meet, when I’m talking to my grand kids, I’ll be telling them about that situation,” he says.
Yeah, there’s nothing quite like fighting with the aroma of bacon-dogs in the air. Viloria recalls his first performance at the Alameda Swap Meet like it was yesterday.
” It was pouring and that just basically woke me up and I was like,’ If you can fight through this, if you’re not going to win another world championship, than this is how life is going to be. And it’s going to suck.’ I remember being carried into the ring because I didn’t want to get my shoes wet and it was flooded two inches high with water. And I thought that the light was that was on top was going to collapse down on us and I was like,’ Jesus, when Gary told me,’ Brian, you’re going to start from the bottom.’ I wasn’t totally prepared for that. He really meant it.
” I said,’ Gary, you really weren’t kidding.'”
HOPKINS-ADAMEK?
So what are the prospects for that fight taking place in 2010?
Well, Kathy Duva of Main Events dropped me this email on Friday afternoon:” For the record, before this goes any further, Main Events and Adamek have agreed to Golden Boy’s terms. Hopkins won’t commit to the fight because he wants more money from HBO and HBO is not yet prepared to give him what he wants. They have told us that they are waiting on their 2010 budget.”
Don’t forget there is also the issue of Steve Cunningham who is Adameks IBF mandatory.
PALA
I saw a pretty good card on Saturday night at the Pala Casino( which is near San Diego) that saw Grady Brewer blow out Albert Onolunose in two round and prospects Dimitry Chudinov and Leo Santa Cruz have to get off the canvas to win. Just my opinion, but I thought Noe Lopez got the short end of the stick of a very dubious decision versus Dat Nguyen.
By the way, the Pala has an incredible buffet.
FINAL FLURRIES
I haven’t see the HBO card from this weekend, but geez, judging by the feedback I’m getting Paulie Malignaggi was prophetic. His new moniker should be Mali-damus….Been told Kelly Pavlik will be getting another examination on his infected finger Monday. Regardless of what you read, there is an injury, I’m told…..Can you believe football kicks off in about two weeks. Can’t wait for Oregon-Boise St. on the blue turf…..Saw the second edition of Hard Knocks and I have to say, I wouldn’t want to smell the back of Carson Palmer’s hand, either….. Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
