Waiting game over for Viloria
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer
The exhausting road work he accepts without complaint. The rock-and-sock sparring, most of it against opponents a couple of weight classes heavier, he revels in.
It isn't the six-days-a-week training regimen that has most tested professional boxer Brian Viloria these past several months, it has been the waiting. And waiting.
Waiting for his powerful right hand to heal. Then, waiting to get his career, one so full of promise, rolling full speed again. That has been the difficult part of his first year in the pros, the 20-year-old Viloria admits.
"I like to keep busy," Viloria says. "The waiting, that's the tough part for me. It can be frustrating; you want to be fighting, not waiting."
After the iceberg pace of just two bouts in five months and more time spent in a cast than in actual bouts, things are picking up for the former Sydney Olympian from Waipahu, who now trains in Hollywood, Calif., with renewed purpose entering what is scheduled to be his busiest month.
There is a Nov. 9 four-round bout at the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, then a scheduled six-rounder Nov. 23 in New York, part of a benefit show on ESPN2 for the families of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack victims. Then a mid-December or early January date, then, his manager, Gary Gittelsohn says, "one every six weeks for at least the first six months of the year, then...
"Let's just say we plan to keep Brian busy from now on," Gittelsohn said.
Indeed, that had been the idea ever since Viloria signed a professional contract in the spring. After watching his fellow Olympians begin their pro careers, Viloria was ready, willing and able to start his. It was a pile of fallen opponents that was supposed to grow at his feet, not moss.
After a world championship career as an amateur, when his fights came in bunches and punches in flurries, Viloria and his fans envisioned a fast-paced start to his punch-for-pay flyweight career, too.
But when he cracked his right hand on the head of Ben Jun Escobio in an otherwise promising May 15 debut, the plans were put on hold while Viloria underwent surgery. Then, he endured a six-week rehab period before his Sept. 28 technical knockout of Kenny Berrios.
"Sitting out, waiting that long to fight again was tough," Viloria said. "I would have rather been in the ring, fighting. But you have to be patient. You don't want to rush back too fast and not let it have a chance to heal. My time is coming."
In his rookie year, Viloria's biggest lessons thus far have involved the practice of patience. That and not using his opponent's skull for a punching bag.
