Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

During the past three years spent in building a boxing career that has carried him to the corners of the globe, home has been mostly a pit stop for Brian Viloria.

When he glimpses Hawai'i at all, it is usually in snapshot-like interludes. A much-savored Filipino meal at his parents' house in Waipahu, brief moments with friends. A quick look around the neighborhood.

"When I come home, I look at what has changed since the last time," Viloria said. "Things are always changing. Sometimes it surprises me how much it changes."

When the Sydney Olympian comes home this time, arriving today for a May 17 bout at Blaisdell Center arena, it will be to put the changes in himself on display.

Almost a year to the date from when his professional career began in the ring at the Hawai'i Convention Center, Viloria returns a first-time headliner, meeting Sandro Oviedo. With the appearance, Viloria puts under scrutiny the progress he's made while providing the best to-date indication of where he is and where he might be headed.

Despite the fractured right hand suffered in the four-round unanimous decision over Ben Jun Escobia last May, and the three-month layoff it forced, it has been a productive year for the flyweight. There is a 6-0 record and four knockouts garnered at stops in San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York (twice) and San Antonio.

There are lessons learned in graduating from a world amateur championship to the punch-for-pay life. It is an indication of Viloria's perceived progress on that score that the four- and six-round bouts he had waged are becoming things of the past as he moves on to longer bouts and stiffer challenges.

Here, the test will be in a fight scheduled for eight rounds, the better to gauge his progress and measure his conditioning, his corner believes. For somebody who has only gone past four rounds once — a six-round decision before Thanksgiving — it is something of a milestone in his expanding career.

Plainly, Viloria doesn't intend to go the distance here, if he can help it. Nowhere would he rather show his knockout form and make a big impression than here, before the home crowd.

But if he doesn't require the endurance for a full eight this time against Oviedo who, at 22-17-2 is his most experienced opponent to date, there will undoubtedly come an occasion when he does. A time like the not-too-distant future when he starts fighting 10-rounders and he is either unable to lower the boom with his lethal right hand or the opponent is just too good to put down.

Home is, indeed, where the heart has always been for Viloria. And, this time, it is also where challenge awaits.