Manila, Philippines – Three-time World Champion, and current WBO flyweight king Brian “The Hawaiian Punch” Viloria has a date with destiny this weekend at the Ynares Center in Pasig, against nemesis Omar Nino Romero in their third clash that has taken more than five years to make.
This is the same Nino Romero back in August of 2006 who handed Viloria the first loss of his career, and wrestled his WBC light flyweight crown away from him. In their rematch just a few months after, Nino failed a post fight drug test which led to their closely contested bout being ruled a “no contest”.
I caught up with a highly-motivated and excited Viloria during this week’s press conference at the Discovery Suites in Pasig City to talk about his upcoming fight, and discuss his resurgence as one of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters.
BV – “I’m very excited for this fight; it’s been long overdue. They pushed our fight back for about a month from April, I was already in shape then, so I tweaked up and calibrated my training camp just a little bit. Right now I’m just ready to go, and I can’t wait until *Sunday.”
* Saturday night live in the US and Hawaii
On what a 3rd Nino fight means to him, and what he plans to bring in the ring
BV – “They put a lot of names in front of me, I could’ve chosen somebody else other than Omar, but I think we have unfinished business that needed to be attended to. That last fight which ended in a no contest left a sour taste in my mouth. I don’t think I even performed to the best of my abilities in those first two fights, so that’s something to prove not only to my fans for for myself; that I can accomplish that against a fighter like Omar Nino, that a ca beat a fighter such as him. I just need to put the best Brian Viloria out there, and give it 110%, and I should overcome all obstacles such as Omar.”
Viloria looks back at his first 2 fights with Nino Romero, talks about lingering anger and animosity, and added motivation for their 3rd fight
BV – “I think the animosity wasn’t towards Nino, I think the angered was geared towards myself more, and because I king of short-changed myself. I didn’t feel like I performed to the best of what I’m able to do. If I look at it that way, I couldn’t blame Nino for what he did, becase he did what he had to do, and so the anger goes towards me.”
“Right now, I think I’ve matured enough, I’ve learned enough of my craft and refined my craft a lot more than when I was 24 or 25-years-old. At that age, I think it was a little bit of being too confident in yourself, and not knowing that it’s really easy to fall off the horse. If your not careful enough, if you don’t prepare yourself enough, so at that age, I thought I was unstoppable…”
For more on this interview, click this link, as Viloria talks about his maturation as a person and a boxer, his gameplan, and his LA Lakers who are currently in a war of their own against the Denver Nuggets in their 1st round Western Conference NBA Playoffs match-up.
