By Ryan Songalia
With a little under three weeks before his ring return on July 10, former two-time light flyweight champion Brian Viloria has split with head trainer Roberto Garcia. Garcia says he left Viloria's camp this week, feeling that Viloria was not ready to fight due to an illness that hampered training camp two weeks ago.
Garcia says that Viloria was out of commission from June 10-13 and that the training camp was compromised to the point where Viloria would not be ready to go on July 10 for his fight against Omar Soto at the Yñares Sports Arena in Pasig City, Philippines.
"He was coughing a lot on Wednesday," says Garcia, in reference to June 9. "That was the last day he trained. On Thursday, he didn't run or train. I called him and asked him how he was feeling and he was sounding very sick. I saw him back on Monday and he came to the gym and he was still coughing and spitting out a lot of phlegm. I think three weeks is not enough to train for a very important fight."
Garcia says he contacted Viloria's manager Gary Gittelsohn about postponing the fight with Soto at least two weeks, which will be televised by Solar TV and Solar Sports. Garcia claims that Gittelsohn told him that "everything is set for the fight and there's nothing he could do."
Gittelsohn struck back at Garcia by saying that Garcia had "mishandled a conflict of interest" between Viloria and Nonito Donaire Jr., whom he also works with as a "strategist". Both Viloria and Donaire are scheduled for fights on July 10 and Gittelsohn claims that Garcia had intended all along to leave Viloria in Oxnard, CA to join Donaire Jr. in San Francisco.
"Brian is more than ready to fight this fight," says Gittelsohn. "If he wasn't, it would be canceled with the full support of everyone, including and especially the promoter and television station. Everyone in Brian's camp recognizes that Brian is 100% ready to fight on July 10. Brian had a cold, a simple cold that lasted four days. Anyone who knows me, or knows of my relationship with Brian, knows that he is as close to being my son, as if he was my own flesh and blood. I would never put him in a fight if he wasn't 100% ready to compete.
"Robert made promises simultaneously to me and the Donaire camp. Faced with the jam he created for himself he manufactured a story about how Brian needed more time to get ready and that his fight should be postponed."
Gittelsohn says that on Monday night (June 21), Garcia contacted Gittelsohn to let him know that he felt Viloria was looking good in training.
"On Saturday, Robert assured me in a written text that the sole purpose of his trip to San Leandro was to drive Steven Luevano up north for sparring with Nonito," Gittelsohn says. "Furthermore, Robert assured me he would be back in Oxnard with Brian on Monday.
"Robert Garcia affirmed that all systems were 'go' to depart with Brian to Manila on July 1, as planned. Based on Robert's assurances, air travel was purchased for Robert and the ticket information was transmitted."
Garcia concedes that Viloria looked impressive in training after returning to the gym but felt that there still wasn't enough time to adequately prepare for a ten round fight. He says the decision that Viloria shouldn't fight was made on June 16, which was the first time he had contacted Donaire about coming up full-time with them. He says they met at the Andre Ward vs. Allan Green fight on June 19 in Oakland to discuss their arrangement further and that their first day in the gym together was June 23.
"He's training hard, maybe harder than ever. He wants to fight and get back to winning and looking good. He ran hard yesterday before I left Oxnard to go to San Francisco.
"But to do this three weeks before a fight, it's not enough time."
Garcia contends that his loyalty would have been with Viloria since they had worked together for a longer period of time. Garcia began working with Viloria in 2007 after losing a decision to Edgar Sosa. He began working with Donaire Jr. for his last fight with Manuel Vargas in February, though Jonathan Penalosa was the chief second in the corner.
Garcia says that he had intended to come up to San Francisco with Donaire for a few days prior to the ending of training camp to "observe and correct any flaws" in sparring, while helping to supply a fight strategy. He says that Jonathan Penalosa, who has worked with Donaire Jr. since splitting with Nonito Donaire Sr., is still the head trainer who works with Donaire on a daily basis.
Donaire, 23-1 (15 KO), will fight on July 10 in Puerto Rico against Hernan Marquez, 27-1 (20 KO).
Garcia feels that Viloria, who was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in the dressing room following his twelfth round stoppage loss to Carlos Tamara in January, is taking a risk by proceeding with the original fight date.
"He trained very hard for the Tamara fight, was in tremendous shape but ended up in the hospital. I was worried. To see something like this happen again, it has me worried.
"I was a fighter myself and a lot of people never fought before so they don't know what it's like to be in the ring and risk your life, especially when you're not 100%. It's the responsibility of the trainer to make those kind of decisions. They didn't respect my decisions so I had to make a move."
Viloria is still training at Garcia's La Colonia Boxing Gym with Francisco "Paco" Navarro, who is an assistant to Garcia, and Ruben Gomez, who has worked with Viloria since the beginning of his pro career. Garcia says that he has allowed Viloria to remain at the Oxnard, CA gym so that Viloria doesn't have to scramble to find a new gym on short notice. Garcia adds that Navarro will not travel with Viloria "because he also feels the same way I feel. He doesn't feel like Brian is ready."
Gomez, on the other hand, says that the four days off "rejuvenated" Viloria and that he did ten rounds of sparring with three different pros the Monday that he returned. He maintains that Viloria is looking good in the gym and should be ready for July 10.
Gittelsohn says he is currently making arrangements for a new head trainer to accompany Viloria to the Philippines for his fight with Soto, who is 19-6-2 (13 KO). Viloria is moving to 112 to pursue a world title in his second division.
Viloria and the Donaires have a long history together, dating back to the US Olympic trials in 2000. Viloria beat Nonito's younger brother Glenn in the semi-finals, then bested Nonito in the finals by the score of 8-6 to qualify for the US Olympic squad. -RS
Ryan Songalia is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a contributor to GMA-7 News in the Philippines. He can be reached at
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