LOS ANGELES – Light flyweight Brian Viloria will never forget 2005.
Tomorrow, the former U.S. Olympian will fight for his first world title on the undercard of the Erik Morales-Zahir Raheem bout at Staples Center. In May, he almost killed a man.
The Hawaiian fought journeyman Ruben Contreras on May 28, also at Staples. Contreras retired in the sixth round of a one-sided fight, complaining of a headache, and had a seizure minutes later.
That night he had surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain and was placed in a medically induced coma.
As Contreras lay in the hospital, his fate uncertain, Viloria also suffered, even as he prepared for the biggest fight of his life. He was scheduled to fight WBC champ Eric Ortiz on July 30, on the Lucia Rijker-Christy Martin card, but the bout was postponed until tomorrow after Rijker was injured and the card was canceled.
“There were a lot of prayers,” Viloria said, “a lot of talking to family and friends, trying to get my head straight for the biggest fight of my career.
“People told me, ‘It’s not your fault, it happens in boxing.’ It was hard, though. I spent more than one sleepless night.”
Had Contreras died, Viloria, only 24, doesn’t think he would have gone through with the Ortiz fight or ever fought again.
Fortunately, he wasn’t faced with that decision. Between the original fight date and Saturday, Contreras pulled out of the coma and apparently is recovering; he is expected to be at Staples tomorrow.
“I don’t think I could’ve fought again,” Viloria said. “Mentally, I know I wouldn’t have been able to cope. It was a crazy experience. I’m just glad it had a happy ending.”
Will memories of the Contreras fight haunt him tomorrow or beyond?
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “That’s in the past now. I’ve sparred without hesitation, without that being an issue. Now I’m focused again on boxing, on winning the championship.”
Around the ring Manny Pacquiao, who fights Hector Velazquez tomorrow in a tuneup for a scheduled Jan. 21 rematch with Morales, apparently is as popular as anyone in his native Philippines – even Tony Award-winning actress Lea Salonga. Filipino reporters say Pacquiao is mobbed when he walks the streets anywhere in the country, happily accommodating all autograph-seekers. He’s all over television, endorsing every product imaginable. And when he fights, the country stands still to watch.
“He’s the top idol there today,” said Vicente Samson, an L.A.-based Filipino reporter. “He’s idolized by the young and the old. Boxing is very popular in the Philippines, but it’s more than that.
“He’s the idol of the masses. He’s a rags-to-riches story, that kind of symbol, that you can reach your dreams if you put your heart into it.”
Pacquiao’s trainer, L.A. resident Freddie Roach, knows first-hand how big Pacquiao is there.
He was riding in the sidecar of a motorcycle with another member of the Pacquiao team recently in the fighter’s province of Mindinao, a volatile place some warned him to avoid.
“We’re riding along and all of a sudden we’re cut off by a car and forced to stop,” Roach said. “I’m thinking, ‘Uh-oh, I should’ve listened to the people who said I’d be killed.’ Well, they get out, walk toward me and say, ‘Can I have your autograph?’
“I guess I’m a little famous there, too.”
