MILAN Melindo watched carefully at ringside in the Cotai Arena of the Venetian Casino and Resort the whole 12-round fight between Brian Viloria and Juan Francisco Estrada last Friday night in Macau.
Milan, who destroyed Tommy Seran in four rounds earlier that night to earn a long overdue world title shot, was just studying his next opponent.
And after seeing Estrada beat Viloria for the unified World Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association flyweight belts, the 25-year-old Melindo is confident that he has what it takes to dethrone the newly crowned world champion from Mexico.
?I can beat him,? said Melindo in his visit to Sun.Star Cebu yesterday. ?He was effective because Viloria allowed him to throw the body punches. Those body punches added up and took away much of Viloria?s stamina.?
Melindo believes that Viloria could have won the fight if he changed his approach and went for the body instead of headhunting.
?Viloria should have done what Estrada did to him in that fight. Viloria should have stopped Estrada?s combinations and tried to target the body. It would have slowed down Estrada,? he said.
After seeing Estrada fight for 36 minutes against Viloria, Melindo has a hunch on how to beat the 22-year-old Mexican boxer.
?Estrada?s weakness wasn?t seen because Viloria failed to expose it. But I believe that if a boxer targets the body then his weakness is his body,? he said.
The world title fight between Estrada and Melindo is scheduled as one of the main fights of Top Rank?s second boxing show in Macau in August.
Despite the magnitude of the event and the fight, Melindo isn?t at all overwhelmed by it.
?The mindset of each person is different. It is up to him if he will be overwhelmed. I?m confident in myself and it should be no problem,? he said.
Melindo will be having a well deserved vacation before starting his training camp next month for the biggest fight of his career.
