PASAY CITY, PHILIPPINES – After 12 rough rounds of back and forth exchanges between Brian Viloria and Carlos Tamara, in the end, a new Light Flyweight champion was crowned. Carlos “El Olimpico” Tamara applied the pressure constantly and broke down the now ex-champion. Viloria had control of the early and middle rounds and though Tamara out-punched him most of the time, Viloria’s shots did much more damage as he clearly had the edge in power. In the eighth, Viloria even wobbled Tamara and tried to finish him off, the latter did his best to survive the round. However, things were different to start off the ninth as Tamara gained his second wind and took the fight to the champion. A visibly tired Viloria, picked his spots but could no longer defend against Tamara’s onslaught. Tamara threw everything but the kitchen sink. Viloria kept taking it and would not go down, even if at times it seemed he might. By the 10th round, “the championship rounds” as we call them in boxing, it was all Tamara as the challenger dominated the champion throwing punches by the bunches and almost landing at will. In the twelfth and final round, Viloria’s trainer Robert Garcia urged his ward to throw more punches, but Viloria was exhausted and in desperate need of oxygen. With his hands down, he could no longer defend himself and it took a flurry of Tamara power shots for the referee to stop the fight and prevent Viloria from taking anymore damage, giving Tamara the TKO victory. After the fight, Viloria had to be given oxygen through an oxygen mask. He collapsed and was rushed to a nearby hospital. UPDATE: Viloria is in stable condition but is still confined in the hospital.
Tamara didn’t just win the IBF Light Flyweight belt. He flew thousands of miles away to the Philippines, ran into hundreds of Viloria fans wanting to see him get knocked out, he climbed through the ropes and fought like a warrior. He stepped up to the plate and forcefully took the title away from Viloria. Tamara delivered a beat down, simply put. A sad day for Philippine boxing and for Team Viloria, but congratulations to the new IBF Light Flyweight Champion of the World! Carlos Tamara!
This is yet another huge setback for Brian Viloria. He clearly has a stamina issue that needs to be addressed immediately. A strength and conditioning coach like Alex Ariza would certainly help, but maybe cutting down training from three months to two in his next fight would not burn him out so much like it did for this fight. As for Carlos Tamara, the sky’s the limit for this young man. He’s a good solid puncher, with a strong, sturdy chin. He keeps the pressure on and makes you work every minute of every round. Tamara looked really impressive and it will be really interesting to see how he would match up against other great fighters in his division like Ivan Calderon and Koki Kameda.
In the co-main event, Donnie “Ahas” Nietes won a controversial TKO victory in the 10th and final round of his match with a very game Jesus “Negrito” Silvestre of Mexico. Nietes scored a first round knockdown as he hit Silvestre with a straight right on the chin but by the start of the 2nd round onwards, Silvestre displayed his toughness by trading shots with Nietes oftentimes getting the better of the exchanges. Before the start of the final round, Silvestre’s crew took extra time to give him water and apply his mouthpiece, causing the referee to stop the fight due to the delay. Silvestre was clearly disappointed in the outcome as he would have liked to finish the fight. However, even if he had heard the final bell, I don’t think the outcome would have changed much as Nietes was on his way to a points victory.
Former Lightweight world title challenger Jimrex “The Executioner” Jaca also made his comeback fight a memorable one knocking out Ramadhan Weriu of Indonesia. After a one year hiatus from the sport, Jaca still has the tools to deliver excitement and could be on the comeback trail to being a top contender in the division. The end came at the fifth round when Jaca landed a vicious right uppercut square on the chin and then followed it up by a solid three punch combination that dropped Weriu, he could not beat the count.
Results of other fights:
Jason Pagara MD12 Eddy Comaro
Jose Ocampo KO2 Roselito Campana
Jay Solmiano TKO2 Daryl Pucdol
Dodie Boy Penalosa Jr. KO2 Anthony Baluber (Penalosa scored 3 knockdowns)
Ivan Soriano MD4 Jomar Tubaga
Pictures are owned and copyrighted by Denmark R. Dolores for OfficialScoreCard.com
