Rubillar Calls Out Viloria For Hawaii Bout

By Rey Danseco
 
ORIENTAL and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) light flyweight champion Juanito Rubillar will continue to chase Brian Viloria as his manager plans to stage his third fight in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Gabriel “Bebot” Elorde Jr. is now working the fight card with his counterpart in Hawaii and plans to have Rubillar’s bout in the main event, either a clash against Viloria or his first title defense against a veteran Japanese challenger Ken Nakajima at the 5,000-seat Neal S. Blaisdell Arena on the second or third Tuesday of April.

"Rubillar isn’t afraid of Viloria and we believe it is Viloria who is afraid of Rubillar. But now that Rubillar is willing to fight him in his (Viloria) birthplace there’s no reason for Viloria to turn his back,” said Elorde.

It can be remembered that Elorde offered Viloria a whopping $150,000 purse to fight southpaw Rubillar in a mandatory fight as early as March/April, last year in Manila. But the Filipino-Hawaiian Punch refused to defend to the top ranked Filipino contender and instead alibi that his injured right-hand has lingering effect. He acquired the injury from his previous fight, a title defense against hand-picked Mexican challenger Jose Antonio Aguirre in Feb. 2006.

Viloria’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank convinced the WBC that the pride of Ilocos Sur in Northern Philippines had a hand injury to give the organization a reason to order Rubillar to fight Thai Wandee Singwancha for WBC interim light flyweight title fight in Thailand. Just a few days after the Rubillar-Singwancha fight deal was done, Arum announced that Viloria's hand is fully healed and ready to fight lowly-rated Omar Nino Romero of Mexico as his challenger last August.

Both Viloria (19-1-1, 12 KOs) and Rubillar (40-10-7, 18 KOs) lost their fights by unanimous decision.

“You may call it karma to Viloria. His team fooled the WBC and Rubillar, so he lost his title to a Mexican,” said Elorde. “Rubillar may have been cheated on the scale in Thailand. I said maybe, so we charged that to experience. We must move on and now is the time to prove that he’s (Viloria) not afraid of Rubillar."

If Viloria, rated No. 4 by the WBC, refuses once again to face the No. 6 ranked Rubillar, he may fight Nakajima for his first title defense.

Nakajima (16-4, 10 KOs), a right-handed fighter who stands 5-foot-4, is a former challenger to WBC minimumweight champ Eagle Kyowa last year.

Rubillar won twice in as many bouts in Honolulu. He beat Yuki Hashiguchi with unanimous decision on in November 2000 at Dole Cannery Ballroom and stopped former Japanese champ Takayuki Korogi in the third round at the Blaisdell Arena two years later.