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VILORIA FIGHTS DALAKIAN FOR HIS FIFTH WORLD TITLE By Maloney L. Samaco PhilBoxing.com Sat, 10 Feb 2018  Four-time and two-division world champion and WBA No. 2 ranked Brian ?The Hawaiian Punch? Viloria (38-5, 22 KO?s) of Los Angeles, California originally from Waipahu, Hawaii will battle undefeated and No.1 ranked Artem Dalakian (15-0, 11 KO?s) from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine for the vacant WBA world flyweight title on Saturday February 24, 2018, at the Forum in Los Angeles. * * * Viloria fought and provided excitement for the fans at the first Superfly event, where he stopped Miguel Cartagena in the fifth round last September 9 at the Stubhub Center. He was the former WBA flyweight champion, the former WBC junior flyweight titlist, also the previous IBF junior flyweight king and the WBO flyweight ex-champ. * * * Viloria challenged the then No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter of the world and ex- WBC flyweight world champion Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez at the Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of Boxing, on October 17, 2015. He fought a gallant battle against the then undefeated Mexican boxing king before a full-packed arena which had the crowd standing on their feet all throughout the match. * * * Dalakian fought entirely in Ukraine since turning professional five years ago. He won the vacant WBA Continental flyweight title on July 17, 2015 with a 12-round decision victory over Angel Moreno in Kiev, Ukraine. The hard-hitting Dalakian was able to defend his title four times, with all wins by way of knockout. His last triumph is a sixth round stoppage of Luis Manuel Macias on April 22, 2017 in Kiev. * * * ?When you get up in age you lose a little step here and a step there, but I feel better than I did in my previous matches,? the 37-year-old Viloria was quoted by BoxingScene. ?I feel really good right now, and every time we did try to explore what I should be doing, it always came back to me saying I still think I?ve got what it takes. I still have more in the tank, and that?s why you still see me here today fighting for my fifth world title. I?m taking it one fight at a time. I know I don?t have much longer in my career, I?m not gonna do this until I?m 40." * * * International Boxing Federation (IBF) super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas (29-1-1, 20 knockouts), who successfully defended his title for the fourth time by stopping Mexico's Israel Gonzalez in the 10th round of a lopsided fight in Corpus Christi, could face fellow Filipino Jonas Sultan of Cebu in his next defense. Sultan (14-3, 9 KOs) is the IBF's mandatory no. 1 challenger. * * * "In the IBF we have a mandatory with another Filipino Jonas Sultan," MP Promotions matchmaker Sean Gibbons told Renz Ongkiko of Sportscenter. "We're looking into that. If we have to do that fight we'll do it. If not, we'll see what's out there. But we're kind of looking at the mandatory right now." Joe Ramos also of MP Promotions, which co-promotes Ancajas, also referred to Sultan as the next possible opponent. "Obviously the mandatory is Jonas Sultan of the Philippines," Ramos told Ongkiko. "We'll go there and see what happens." * * * If an Ancajas-Sultan championship match happens, it will be the first time in almost 93 years that two Filipinos will clash for a world boxing title belt. The last all-Filipino title fight was in May 1925 when Pancho Villa beat Clever Sencio to retain his world flyweight championship in Wallace Field, Manila. * * * Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming wants to fight again in spite of a serious eye condition which threatened to end his professional career. Shiming was discovered to be suffering from an eye injury after losing partial sight in his left eye during a flight from Beijing to Shanghai after he received the Laureus China Top Ten Sports Awards. He was advised by doctors that he could suffer a permanent sight loss if he fights again. ?I?m cooperating with doctors to get treatment, and I will never give up. If my body allows it, I think I can fight in the ring,? Xinhua quoted Zou adding that he had not decided to retire. * * * Doctors diagnosed him to be suffering from a detached retina and an optic nerve damage. Zou?s wife Ran Yingying revealed that the two-time Olympic champion?s condition was caused by broken bones in and around his eye socket, as he sugfered a similar injury in 2014. Mainland media revealed in December that Zou owed millions of dollars to his previous manager, an allegation his agents immediately denied saying they always consider their fighter?s welfare first. It was the wife who leaked messages claiming Shiming had millions in debt and forced to fight but it was denied by his agents. * * * He held the WBA world flyweight title until last July when he was dominated by Japan?s Sho Kimura, a great underdog before their fight. Unfortunately, everything was not well after Shiming decided to become a free agent and he separated with Top Rank, trainer Freddie Roach of the Wild Card Gym, and even his promoters in China. * * * Evander Holyfield has held portions of the world heavyweight title five times, and that is a difficult record to beat. But the more unbreakable achievement is Muhammad Ali's reign as the undisputed heavyweight champion three times. At present, it is very hard to become an undisputed champion with the different alphabet soup organizations. To reign three times as the undisputed champion is extremely rare. Muhammad Ali first beat Sonny Liston in 1964. A decade later, he shocked the world in a historic upset of George Foreman to become just the second man, after Floyd Patterson, to regain the heavyweight crown. Ali lost his title to Leon Spinks in a classic defeat in 1978, but seized back the crown in an immediate rematch. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.  |
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