This past Saturday night at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii, Brian Viloria successfully defended his IBF jr. flyweight title by out-pointing the resilient Jesus Iribe. He punctuated his performance by slugging it out with the Mexican in the 12th and final round, instead of sitting on his safe lead on the scorecards. The action had the crowd in a frenzy. It was almost as if ‘the Hawaiian Punch’ wasn’t just attempting to put away Iribe but to firmly entrench boxing in his home state, which had not had a championship fight in over three decades.
Asked about his homecoming, he stated,” It always feels good to fight in front of the home town, whether it was for a world title or not. This whole week was amazing, to see boxing back, all the support. To see boxing here on the island and hopefully we’ll come back for some more cards like this. Bigger fights, great fights. Hopefully we opened the door for that kind of fight.”
Will the next championship fight in Hawaii take place around the year 2045 or did this promotion at least build a foundation for future cards featuring Viloria and other Hawaiian boxers?
” I do( believe that),” said his manager Gary Gittelsohn on Tuesday afternoon, who was instrumental in making this event a reality.” I’m actually very happy. We had a wrap-up talk with morning with Peter Chan-Liong of Solar Sports. We were sitting at breakfast, we were both very, very happy with the event. I think we laid some terrific groundwork for another event here. I think there’s a market here. I think we learned a couple of things about pricing and so forth. But for the most part, it was a successful event. We did a nice gate and we had an acceptable crowd and Brian had tremendous support from the media. I think we’re going to build on it.”
When asked about the attendance, Gittelsohn, who stayed in Hawaii a few extra days, told Maxboxing,” I’ll tell you that we had over 3,000 paying customers and we had over 4,000 people in the arena.”
Perhaps it wasn’t a home run, but they certainly didn’t strike out. But in an era with tightening networks budgets and diminishing dates on television, more than ever, it’s vital that fighters- especially smaller ones like Viloria- build a local constituency that they can count on.
Top Rank promotes Viloria, but this event was handled locally by Tom Moffatt, a noted concert promoter, who once brought Elvis to the islands.
” I think it went over very well, I think it was a very good card,”said Moffatt, who was taken back by the behavior of the crowd.” I was impressed that the audience stayed on after the main event, when we had two four-rounders to follow. And a lot of people stayed to watch the other two fights and normally, something like that, the place clears pretty fast. People stayed and they enjoyed it and you could hear the reaction.”
A good bulk of the crowd was there to watch the undercard, also. It’s clear, there is a segment of this population that yearns for professional boxing- not just Viloria. MMA in recent years- excuse the pun- has had a stranglehold on this region. But Moffatt believes that Viloria and boxing made some in-roads on the night of August 29th. “I think so. The buzz afterword was good. Word on the street is good. So I think it’ll be a lot easier to sell the next boxing event that comes in here.”
Throughout the week media coverage was strong. Both daily papers, the Honolulu Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin, gave the event expansive coverage in the lead-up to the fight. And the local network affiliates were on hand throughout the week to cover the final press conference, weigh-in and the post-fight presser. In a region where the University of Hawaii football program takes center stage, Viloria has seemingly carved out his own niche.
One of the advantages that Viloria has is that being a Filipino-American, that represented the United States in the 2000 Olympics, he comes from an area with a dense concentration of his people. According to figures from the 2000 Census, 23-percent of the Hawaiian population is of Filipino ancestry, with 70-percent of them living on the island of Oahu. In addition to that, because of the booming stardom of Manny Pacquiao, the Philippines, more than any other country perhaps( even more than Mexico and Puerto Rico) takes great pride in their championship prizefighters.
When Viloria co-headlined a show with fellow Fil-Am, Nonito Donaire in April, a crowd of over 12,000 came out to see them at the famed Araneta Coliseum in Manila. Boxing matters in this part of the world. And on Sunday afternoon a sizable throng met Viloria at the Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu for what was described as a ‘blessing and victory party’ for Viloria. After finally signing every last autograph and posing for every last photo over there, he would then go to an event put on by GMA-TV (which broadcast the fight back to the Philippines) where he and singer Jolina Magdangal were featured guests.
He may not be ‘the Pac Man’, but he’s the ‘Pac Man’ of this jurisdiction. And by the time you’re reading this, Viloria, will have been whisked away to the Philippines by Solar Sports where he will be an honored guest that will meet with dignitaries and other political figures, along with having a parade in his honor.
But even with that, Gittelsohn didn’t want his charge being typecast as a player on ‘Pinoy Power’ cards.
” Look, there’s only one Manny Pacquiao,” said the respected manager, who did not state that with the melody of Ricky Hatton revelers,” I think everybody who had gotten caught up in the froth of the Pacquiao fever is beginning to recognize that, from Bob Arum to Golden Boy, to others. But I recognize that Brian, he’s a different personality and I think that his popularity and his celebrity have to be personalized. So Brian’s got, aside from the Filipino market- which has been very supportive and we’re all grateful- he also grew up in Hawaii, he was a local boy and Hawaii has had a void of boxing business, which has been filled by MMA and I think we got tremendous support from everyone and a real thirst to bring something back here.
” So Brian, for better or worse, Brian will carry the burden of making that market here.”
There are some obstacles to be sure. Viloria, is still a Lilliputian( a fancy way of saying ‘little guy’) and Hawaii, with all due respect to figures like Jesus Salud and Andy Ganigan, hasn’t ever been a big boxing market. Also, in terms of television, the fact that this state is three hours behind the Pacific time zone, could be problematic.
But for now, Gittelsohn maps out the immediate future of Viloria.
” Brian will definitely fight before the end of the year. We’ve already received a letter from the IBF in connection with his mandatory obligation and we’ll address that. I’m also looking very carefully at what happens on September 12Th with respect to the Rodel Mayol-Ivan Calderon rematch. I’d love to go right into a unification fight, especially if it’s Calderon. So we have options and I know that Bob Arum is looking at a ‘Pinoy Power III’ show in December. I’m not sure that’s the right place for Brian. I’ll talk to Bob about it. And if not, we could have Brian showcase a main event in the Philippines, as well.”
Who knows if Viloria will become the Michael Carbajal of the Pacific, but those who were actively involved last weekend, are ready to move forward.
” Oh, yes, absolutely,” said Moffatt, without hesitation.” I believe in Brian. I’ve believed in Brian since he turned professional and I think the next time it’ll be a lot easier to sell tickets.”
HAWAII POSTCARD PART II
On Sunday, I hung out with Viloria and his girlfriend Erica for much of the day as they went to the Philippines consulate and their GMA-TV event. I, along with a couple of his other friends, got a chance to get a true slice of Hawaii. First, we went to the ‘Rainbow Drive-In’ for lunch, where I had a great pulled pork sandwich and then a burger( hey, I was starving, what can I say?) The place was packed and so we all ended up eating are food leaning up against a brick wall.
Later on we hit his old neighborhood in Waipahu, which is a working class area of Hawaii, where he visited his grandmother for a few minutes. After that, we went for shaved ice- which I insisted on- and we eventually landed at a place called ‘Ice Garden’ which is located in a strip mall not too far from the airport.
I have to tell ya’, shaved ice is unbelievable. Here, I thought it was just another version of a snow cone, Slurpee or Icee, but this is much more than that. That stuff I mentioned before is steak, this is filet mignon. I had one that was root beer flavor and it came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. We all enjoyed our first orders so much, all the guys in the group decided to go for seconds. I had a pudding flavor dish, which, get this, came with two pieces of flan on top. Yeah, flan. Seriously, no lie. And it was good to the last shaving.
Here’s the funny thing about that place, it is run by these two old Asian women( I think they were Chinese) who worked as fast as they could but this place was so old-school that as you placed your order, they added up your total on the back of an empty cigarette carton and then they told you what you owed. Now, if you were expensing this( which I wasn’t, by the way), you probably would’ve gotten a small piece of a Marlboro box with a bunch of numbers written on them. Try turning that in to the bosses.
Also, Brian had said he had never been to this establishment before, as we waited in line, we noticed that on the side wall, right next to where you place your order, there was an autograph photo of Viloria from his days as an amateur. You could tell it had been there for awhile as the signature was faded. His hair was also unusually long and it looked like he was rocking a Fili-fro. The ladies behind the counter didn’t really notice that the guy in front of them was the same guy on the side wall.
I think that every patron that came through was Japanese (trust me, us Asians can tell us apart, it’s a yellow thing, you wouldn’t understand) but after awhile, Viloria was being asked to pose for photo’s with several families. And as the ‘Ice Garden’ closed at five, one of the ladies happily waved good-bye to Viloria. Hey, it’s not everyday a celebrity shows up to their establishment.
After that I was taken to the airport and as I finally settled in at the airport bar, I decided to have a few beers. Why not? I had plenty of time. I saw what they had on tap and deciding to stay with the Hawaiian theme, I had a glass of Island Lager, Mehana Hawaii Lager and then Sunset Hawaiian Beer.
Hey, I can have Budweiser at anytime.
SHOWTIME
Gary Shaw won the purse bid for the WBO jr. welterweight title, that will be contested by Tim Bradley and Lamont Peterson with an offering of $575,000. This interesting match-up will headline the December 5th edition of Showtime Championship Boxing.
Also on that broadcast will be Vic Darchinyan moving back down to 115-pounds and facing Tomas Rojas. There was talk of making this broadcast a triple-header by adding the bout between Ali Funeka and Joan Guzman, but it’s not clear that Showtime has the money remaining to make this a reality.
KICKOFF FLURRIES
It’s been a busy time for Gary Shaw as GSP has signed jr. middleweight Tyrone Brunson and welters Freddy Hernandez and Orlando Lora….Thompson Boxing returns to the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario, California next Friday. Their main event will have Josesito Lopez taking on Anthony Mora…..On September 12Th, undefeated prospects Eloy Perez takes on Dannie Williams at the Playboy Mansion. And in Sacramento that same night, Matt Godfrey faces Micheal Simms for the NABF cruiserweight crown….The October 31st telecast on Showtime will have IBF bantamweight titlist Joseph Agbeko taking on his mandatory challenger Yhonny Perez. I’m gonna order the upset special right now, I like Perez in this one…..It was pointed out to me by a reader that I said Viloria was a WBC titlist in my diary column, when in fact, he holds an IBF strap. Duly noted…..Hey, weren’t the Denver Broncos just better off keeping Mike Shanahan?….Folks, can you believe the football season is upon us. I can’t wait for Oregon-Boise St. In fact, I can’t wait for South Carolina- NCState….. Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
