By Jake Donovan
Five months after making his long-awaited HBO debut, Romãn Gonzalez will now appear on HBO PPV for the first time in his illustrious career. The unbeaten World flyweight champion once again serves in supporting capacity to unbeaten middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin, as he faces former two-division titlist Brian Viloria on October 17 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Golovkin puts his middleweight title and unbeaten record on the line in the main event, facing David Lemieux in a highly-anticipated middleweight unification bout.
As for the co-feature, there is certainly a groundswell of industry buzz, especially considering the one-two punch that worked so well on an HBO broadcast earlier this year.
“We’re thrilled to welcome back Roman Gonzalez as the co-feature once again to one of Gennady’s fight, his performance at the Forum in May was extraordinary and made for a terrific pairing,” said Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, Golovkin’s promoter who along with Golden Boy Promotions (Lemieux) presents the HBO PPV, in association with Teiken Promotions (Gonzalez).
Gonzalez (43-0, 37KOs) will make the fourth defense of the World flyweight championship he claimed in a 9th round knockout win over Akira Yaegashi last September in Japan. The bout will make his second straight in the United States, and first career appearance in New York City.
"I want to thank God, my Teiken family, especially Mr. Honda and my team for helping me fight again in the United States and now on the HBO Pay-Per-View platform,” said Gonzalez in a press statement. “I know Brian Viloria is a great champion and it will be a hard fight, but I am ready for the challenge. I have faith that God will give me the strength to keep training and be able to give all my fans my best fight ever."
Gonzalez claimed the flyweight championship some 15 months after officially moving up in weight. The undefeated pound-for-pound level star previously held titles at strawweight and junior flyweight while building his brand as one of the best fighters in the world.
With the talent finally came the notoriety when he was brought to the living rooms of HBO subscribers in May. His 2nd round knockout of Edgar Sosa was paired up with Golovkin’s 6th round knockout of Willie Monroe, with both bouts performing remarkably well with home subscribers and also playing to a sold-out crowd at The Forum in the greater Los Angeles area.
In Viloria (36-4, 22KOs), he faces a fighter seemingly with nine lives. The Hawaii-born little big man served as a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic boxing team, becoming the third member of that squad to capture a major title when he knocked out Eric Ortiz in one round to claim a junior flyweight belt in Sept. ’05. The reign was short-lived and also followed by a rough patch in his career, where he went nearly two full years without a win.
Viloria would go on to enjoy another brief stay as a junior flyweight titlist before moving up to flyweight, where he reigned as champ for 21 months.
“I’ve fought and won on the world’s biggest stages against the best of the best. I’ve prepared my whole life to win at every level of competition from World Amateur titles to the Olympic Games to professional world titles. And this fight, against Roman Gonzalez, is likely to be my biggest challenge yet,” admits Viloria, 34, who has won four straight. “But, it’s Roman's biggest challenge too. This is the realization of my dreams and I will make the most of it on fight night.”
Gonzalez and Viloria shared a card in Nov. ’12, in fact perhaps the very best doubleheader of 2012. Gonzalez went to hell and back with Juan Francisco Estrada, taking a 12-round decision in in their thriller, which turned out to be his last fight at junior flyweight. In the main event, Viloria came up aces in a brutal slugfest with former flyweight titlist Hernan ‘Tyson’ Marquez, scoring three knockdowns before putting away the free-swinging Mexican in 10 rounds.
The win was Viloria’s third and final successful title defense, losing a 12-round decision to Estrada five months later in Macau. Four wins have followed, but with the past several months spent actually being one of the few running towards the prospect of a showdown with Gonzalez.
News of such a fight was first suggested by BoxingScene.com’s Francisco Salazar, who confirmed with Viloria’s manager Gary Gittelsohn that the two sides were very close. That status moved to finalized with Tuesday’s announcement.
“I applaud Roman for accepting this fight,” Viloria acknowledged. “Together, we will give boxing fans something special, something they can talk about for a very long time.”
The remaining balance of the PPV telecast is expected to be announced in the near future.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox