By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Brian Viloria, who lost his WBO and WBA flyweight titles to Mexico’s Juan Francisco Estrada by a twelve round split decision in Macau in April of 2013, will face Estrada in a rematch in September according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
The 34 year old Viloria who has a record of 35-4 with 21 knockouts has long wanted a rematch with Estrada after losing in an exciting title fight in which he controlled the early rounds but made the mistake of trying to slug it out with the tough Mexican and eventually lost.
Viloria has been training for the past two months at the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach in preparation for a tune-up fight in Glendale, California on July 25 and in the absence of his regular trainer and Roach’s assistant Marvin Somodia has been working with Roger “Speedy” Gonzalez who is a fighter/trainer and was described by Viloria “really good especially on the punch-mitts and is slick.”
Viloria’s regular trainer and the assistant of Roach, Filipino Marvin Somodio, is currently in the Philippines reportedly attending to the papers of his wife so she could go to America with him.
The rematch with Estrada is likely to be held at the Cotai Arena in Macau.
Viloria has had three successive victories after the loss to Estrada beating Juan Herrera on March 29, 2014, then scoring a 5 th round knockout over Jose Alfredo Zuniga followed by a 4 th round knockout of Armando Vazquez.
The 25 year old Estrada who has a record of 32-2 with 23 knockouts has beaten four Filipinos since winning the title from Viloria.
The first was previously undefeated Milan Melindo who was dropped once by Estrada late in the fight and lost by a unanimous twelve round decision.
Estrada then won by a 10 th round TKO over Richie Mepranum followed by a unanimous ten round decision over Joebert Alvarez before an impressive 3 rd round TKO over Rommel Asenjo.
In between the Mepranum and Alvarez fights, Estrada scored an 11 th round TKO over Giovanni Segura who was also badly beaten by Viloria who inflicted a bad beating on Segura and stopped him in eight rounds on December 11, 2011.