LAS VEGAS — The stage was set for Brian Viloria to shine.
He was defending his junior flyweight championship on national TV on OLN’s new “Fight Night” series and hoping to set up a possible money fight with strawweight champ Ivan “Iron Boy” Calderon.
However, Omar Nino, an unheralded fighter from Mexico, couldn’t have cared less.
He put on a clinic, easily outboxing the heavily favored Viloria to win a unanimous decision and a 108-pound title at The Orleans Arena on Thursday night.
“I’m in shock right now,” Viloria said. “I don’t know what to do right now. It’s just a shock.”
It was evident early on that this was not the usually dynamic Viloria, a 2000 U.S. Olympian and one of the most exciting smaller-weight fighters in the sport.
Viloria, of Waipahu, Hawaii, looked lethargic while Nino spent the whole fight sticking his jab in Viloria’s face and landing uppercuts and left hooks.
When it was over, the judges had it 118-110, 117-112 and 117-111. ESPN.com also had it for Nino, 117-111.
“I came here to win,” said Nino, 30, who was getting his first title shot after 11 years as a pro. “I didn’t come here to do anything else but win this title.”
His punch output was far greater than Viloria’s. He landed 245-of-778 punches (28 percent), according to CompuBox statistics. Viloria (19-1) could only land 113-of-398 blows (28 percent).
Viloria, 25, was making the second defense of the title he won via first-round knockout of Eric Ortiz in September 2005. He defended it with a unanimous decision win against former strawweight champion Jose Antonio Aguirre in February but broke a bone in his hand.
He was expected to roll past Nino (24-2-1) but could never get things going, although he said his hand was fine.
“I fought a stupid fight tonight,” Viloria said. “I was waiting for him and I needed to throw my combinations like I was supposed to. I needed to be a lot more aggressive.”
Said Nino, who was fighting outside of Mexico for the first time: “By the fourth or fifth round I knew I had him.”
Viloria knew he needed to do something dramatic late in the fight.
“I knew in the last couple of rounds I needed to knock out,” he said. “[Trainer Freddie Roach] told me before the 12th round to go out there and knock him out. You just have bad nights. Tonight was mine. I don’t want to make any excuses. I’d like to see if I can get a rematch with him.”
Viloria isn’t the first name fighter Nino has beaten. He owns a 1996 first-round knockout of flyweight star Jorge Arce. But it came in Nino’s fifth pro fight and Arce’s sixth. Arce went on to win the junior flyweight title and an interim flyweight title while becoming a popular draw.
Also on the card, blue-chip prospect Andy Lee (4-0) of Ireland used Carl Cockerham (12-12-3) for six rounds of batting practice, teeing off on him at will and winning a shutout unanimous decision. All three judges had it 60-54.
Lee is the latest find of Hall of Fame trainer/manager Emanuel Steward, who signed him out of the 2004 Athens Olympics. He’s a powerful 6-foot-2 southpaw who Steward believes has the will, toughness and skill to be a world champion.
“I was really satisfied with the fight,” said Steward, who has Lee living with him in his Detroit home. “He boxed, he body-punched and he went the six rounds without even breathing hard.”
Despite his professional inexperience, Lee in recent months sparred regularly with middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, who was preparing to defend his title against Winky Wright in June, and heavyweight titlist Wladimir Klitschko, who was getting ready to challenge Chris Byrd for the title Klitschko won in April.
“He’s a real rough kid and he held his own with both guys,” said Steward, who also trains Taylor and Klitschko.
It was Lee’s first fight with promoter Top Rank, with whom Steward has a two-fight handshake agreement. Steward hopes it will blossom into a long-term relationship.
“We’re trying to develop a world champion, and Top Rank is the best at developing fighters,” Steward said. “We want Andy to develop, not just have a lot of knockouts. These are the kind of fights that will help build him.”
Lee’s straight left hand was dominant. He ripped Cockerham with it repeatedly and opened a cut over his left eye in the fourth round. Although Cockerham was visibly discouraged by his inability to land anything against Lee, he never gave up, even with blood streaking down his face.
“I was trying to get him out of there,” Lee said. “I was using my jab and trying to use my uppercut.
“The knockout just didn’t come. I think I’m improving with every fight. It’s better for me to go six rounds with a tough guy than to knock out a bum in one round. This was a learning fight,” he said.
In another undercard fight, middleweight Jose Luis Zertuche (19-2-2, 14 KOs), a 2000 Mexican Olympian, stopped Carlos Bojorquez (26-9-6) at 1:25 of the eighth round.
It was a nonstop action battle until Zertuche landed a right to the head and left to the body, crumpling Bojorquez in a corner as referee Robert Byrd called it off.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com
