Former unified World Flyweight Champion “The Hawaiian Punch” Brian Viloria was a man on a mission after dropping his belt to Juan Carlos Estrada in Macao two years ago.
After a dominant five-fight run capped by a one round destruction of Omar Soto three months ago, Viloria gunned for current Pound for Pound king Roman Gonzalez’s WBC World Flyweight Championship in the co-main event of Golovkin vs. Lemieux card. “Chocalatito” though was proved that he was a class above the rest in dissecting the Filipino-Hawaiian piece by piece before finishing him off at the ninth round of the match in front of a sold-out New York crowd at the Madison Square Garden.
Viloria started off aggressive in stalking the Nicaraguan in the first two rounds of his fight. A master of his craft, Gonzalez paced himself during that stretch before unleashing a bevy of punches in the third round. The WBC Champion connected with a solid right to the chin that knocked the Filipino flyweight down in the round. A solid uppercut by Gonzalez dazed Viloria to end the round.
A bloodied Viloria was slowly decimated by his opponent in the next rounds. Viloria hardly connected on his opponent as the uncanny stamina of Gonzalez showed. The Nicaraguan quickly dodged almost every punch thrown by the Fiilpino while connecting on various powerful combinations.
Viloria all bloodied and swollen by the eighth round was running on just pure willpower. The ringside physician even took a look at the former Olympian as the swelling was just too much but Viloria refused to go down without a fight. In the ninth round though, the pound for pound best fighter in the world landed a solid right that dazed Viloria. After more shots on a cornered Viloria, referee Benjy Esteves had no other recourse but to stop the fight at the 2:52 mark of the ninth round.
During the post-fight, Viloria had nothing but respect for his opponent. “I had prepared for a different Roman and he surprised me with his defense and his speed. I do feel like the fight was stopped prematurely. I feel good and can keep going,” he said to ESPN’s Dan Rafael.
Based on the Compubox stats, Gonzalez landed a whopping 335 clean shots on 805 thrown on Viloria. The Filipino-Hawaiian landed just 186 of 594 thrown (31%).
The loss drops 34 year old’s record to 36-5.
