By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former WBA super middleweight champion Frankie Liles says former two-time world light flyweight champion Brian Viloria is "an amazing talent" and he was looking forward to "seeing him go out and perform really, really well" against Mexico’s Omar Soto in a ten round flyweight bout in the "Boxing at the Bay" series of Solar Sports at the Ynares Sports Center in Pasig on Saturday.
The fight card will be telecast on Solar Sports beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday with a replay on RPN 9 at prime time.
Lilies reigned as super middleweight champion for some five years, beginning in 1994, and made seven title defenses. He joined the Viloria camp after the former world champion and trainer Robert Garcia parted ways, following reported differences with Viloria’s manager Gary Gittelsohn if not Viloria himself.
Liles who has been with the Viloria team for about three weeks told us that Viloria "has everything that it takes to be on top and it's just a matter of time now," when he wins another world title having previously won the WBC and IBF light flyweight titles.
The former world super middleweight champion said "I love what I see and from what I’ve seen so far, he’s great. He has all the tools, its just putting everything together."
Viloria has been trained by Ruben Gomez, who has been with Viloria throughout his career, and said training camp went very well and he "couldn’t ask for any more than what he’s been doing especially since he is in very good spirits and wants to show that he’s back and is going to be a world champion again."
Gomez indicated he was "very confident" that Viloria would become the world flyweight champion and praised Liles as being "a tremendous guy who pretty much has the same amateur background as Brian so there was an immediate connection there because they were both world amateur champions."
