One of Bob Arum’s proudest achievements is taking 108-pound champion Michael Carbajal and turning him into a fistic superstar with million-dollar purses. The hopes Top Rank’s latest 108-pound belt-holder may have had of following suit disappeared after 12 rounds of indifferent effort that saw Brian Viloria lose his unbeaten record and his WBC mini-flyweight title to challenger Omar Nino at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday night.
The crowd came to support Viloria, giving him a rousing welcome as the “Hawaiian Punch” entered the ring to the theme from Hawaii Five-O. But by the end they were cheering for Nino, acknowledgment of the way in which the challenger outpunched, outworked, and just plain outhustled his more celebrated opponent.
Viloria won the title with a first-round knockout of Eric Ortiz 11 months ago, but in his first defense against the experienced Jose Antonio Aguirre in Las Vegas in February, he looked at times sluggish and tentative despite scoring a unanimous points victory. He never made it out of first gear against Nino — indeed, he appeared stuck in neutral for almost the entire night.
That said, he took the first two rounds on the strength of his counterpunches. But it is one thing to be a counter-puncher, it is another thing entirely to wait for your opponent to punch without actually throwing anything back, and after those first couple of frames that is the trap into which Viloria fell. He seemed almost somnambulant, unable to raise his effort or energy level, and after initially appearing tentative Nino began to realize as much.
He stole the third and fourth rounds on the basis of his extra work rate, negating Viloria’s counters by working in too close for the champion to find room to punch. By the fifth, he realized that the fight was there to be had, and even appeared to be enjoying himself, bouncing on his toes, moving in and firing quick combinations and then moving out again before Viloria even reacted.
And so it evolved over the next several rounds. The only time Nino appeared in any danger was when he displayed over-confidence, standing in front of Viloria a moment too long and throwing combinations that contained one punch too many, and giving even the pedestrian Viloria enough time to respond with punches of his own.
But in the end, the result was never in doubt. Viloria raised his hands in victory at the final bell, but nobody — probably even he — believed it.
The scores — 117-112, 118-110, and 117-111 — the latter matching TigerBoxing’s card, reflected Nino’s dominance. With the victory, Nino climbs to 24-2-1 and Viloria drops to 19-1 and earns himself a free ride to square one.
The highlight bout of the evening was the co-main event, in which Carlos Bojorquez finally succumbed to the onslaught of Jose Luis Zertuche in the eighth of 10 scheduled middleweight rounds.
Bojorquez (26-9-6), started well, putting together effective if unspectacular combinations while Zertuche (19-2-2) winged more violent but far less effective bombs in his opponent’s general direction. But toward the end of the second round, Zertuche landed a couple of solid left hooks. Bojorquez showed no ill effects from them, but Zertuche had seen something and zeroed in on the left hooks in the following frame.
A solid hook, followed by a wicked left-right-left combination, staggered Bojorquez, and then a right followed by another pinpoint left hook nearly finished it. Bojorquez staggered and a brief delay his legs gave way and he sagged face forward, somehow managing to hold himself up long enough to cling to his opponent as tightly as he could. Zertuche moved in for the kill, rattling Bojorquez repeatedly, but somehow the veteran stayed upright and by the end of the period even appeared to have regained his legs.
Despite his success with the punch, Zertuche abandoned the left hook for much of the fourth, substituting it with lead right hands. They found their mark with regularity and authority, but Bojorquez now was walking through them and he shrugged off the left hooks, too, when Zertuche resumed hurling them at his head in the fifth. In the sixth, he bounced both lefts and rights off Bojorquez’s skull, but still his adversary came forward, continuing to throw combinations.
In the seventh, the exertion involved in pounding Bojorquez appeared to be taking its toll on Zertuche, whose punch output dropped dramatically. But instead of allowing Bojorquez to catch a second wind, it merely provided a brief respite from Zertuche’s assault, which resumed to climatic effect in the eighth. This time, a right hand started the damage, another brutal right hand to the temple hurt Bojorquez badly, and two glancing blows helped him on his way to the canvas in his corner. Referee Robert Byrd began to count, but waved off the bout at 1:25 of the round.
In the opening bout of the evening, young Irish super middleweight prospect Andy Lee showed tremendous maturity against tough but limited Danny Jevic. Lee displayed good timing, hand speed and balance, and a wide assortment of punches on his way to an impressive unanimous points victory over six rounds. Lee climbs to 4-0. Jevic falls to 7-8-2.
