By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Fil-American Brian Viloria retained his WBC light flyweight title with a unanimous twelve round decision over former champion Jose Antonio Aguirre in what at times turned into a brutal battle at the Aladdin Resort in Las Vegas. yesterday.
Judge Glen Trowbridge scored it 117-111 for Viloria while C.J. Ross and Ray Hawkins had Viloria comfortably ahead 116-11-2.
Viloria who had predicted a fourth round knockout was surprised by the resiliency of Aguirre who, after taking a beating from Viloria in the opening round fought back ferociously in the next two and hurt the champion with a series of solid shots. Aguirre pinned Viloria against the ropes in the third round and nailed .him with a powerful overhand right but the tough Filipino whose .parents are from Narvacan, Ilocos Sur but spent most of his years in Hawaii earning the nickname “Hawaiian Punch” refused to blink.
Viloria quickly regained his wits and began using his speed and powerful body shots to turn the tide in the middle rounds, in the process bloodying the nose of the Mexican challenger. From then on it was smooth sailing as a supremely confident Viloria battered Aguirre at will but just couldn’t put him away.
After a dominating eleventh round when he had Aguirre in dire straits trainer Freddie Roach told Viloria “come on son, let’s knock this guy out and finish like a champion.” Viloria answered “yes, yes” but couldn’t get it done and clearly didn’t wish to take any risks going for a knockout.
Roach who had predicted that Viloria was too fast and too strong for Aguirre although the Mexican was a tough opponent was extremely cool in Viloria’s corner despite the fact that Viloria was rattled in the early going. As the fight wore on Viloria punching power began to take its toll on the game Aguirre even as Roach commended his fighter for his head movement and his terrific combinations. The celebrated trainer told Viloria before the bell sounded for round ten to hit him with more body shots and “when you make him miss, make him pay.”
Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao who showed his obvious knowledge of the sport and remarkable confidence in his first assignment as analyst in a world title fight, scored the fight perfectly and provided some interesting insights as the fight progressed.
In a post fight interview Viloria praised Aguirre for his courage and commended him as a true Mexican warrior while stressing he benefited from the fact that the fight went the distance. Viloria said he was not going for a knockout just to please the fans”, especially the huge crowd of Filipinos and Fil-Americans who cheered him on as the fight began to turn his way, in the process drowning out the cheers of the Mexican supporters of Aguirre.
Aguirre who was coming off back-to-back TKO losses at the hands of former champion Eric Ortiz who was knocked out in one round by Viloria last September 11 and WBC champion Roberto Vazquez, appeared far from being finished as a fighter and effectively silenced those who had questioned the WBC for allowing Aguirre a title shot and the Nevada State Athletic Commission for sanctioning the fight.
Viloria told WBC flyweight champion Jose Antonio Aguirre who jumped into the ring after the decision was announced “come on man let’s get this done, anytime, anywhere” to which the Mexican ring gladiator replied he was ready and asked Viloria’s handlers to just fix the date and he would be there.
With his impressive win the unbeaten Viloria improved to 19-0 with 12 knockouts while Aguirre who lost his third attempt to win the 108 pound title dropped to 33-5-1 with 20 knockouts.
Viloria was cheered on by a large pro-Filipino crowd when he entered the ring wearing trunks carrying both the Philippine and US flags while his strong Hawaiian links were clearly evident when girls wearing leis worn by hula dancers accompanied Viloria.
Filipino fight fans had a chance to follow the action on pay-per-view in selected theaters as well as on Dream TV at a cost of P300 which was just over $5.. Unlike the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales rematch there were no television pictures showing politicians and other government officials jumping into the ring to embrace Viloria and share the limelight neither were any politicians or businessmen greeted during the telecast by the commentators.