The knock on Viloria ends here
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
We know that home is where the heart is for globetrotting Brian Viloria. Tonight, we learn if it is where the knockout punch has been hiding, too.
It has been 11 months since the Waipahu Olympian last fought here and it only seems as if it has been that long since he's knocked out anyone.
When Viloria last appeared here, requiring just 38 seconds to detonate the swift combination of punches that delivered Sandro Oviedo into somnolence and retirement last May, he was very much a fighter on a knockout roll and in a hurry.
Viloria's fists terminated five of his first seven bouts early and, curiously, if there was a concern articulated in the 7-0 start, it was that he wasn't getting enough rounds to build up stamina.
But as he returns home still unbeaten (11-0, 6 KOs) and the World Boxing Council's No. 5 flyweight to meet Valentin Leon at the Sheraton Waikiki Hawai'i Ballroom five bouts (including a no-contest) later, Viloria has demonstrated ample endurance and patience. More than he wanted, it turns out.
Now, the prevailing question, after 39 consecutive rounds without a knockout, is about the whereabouts of Viloria's marquee punch. Only once in those five appearances — a fifth-round technical knockout of Francisco Soto in June — has Viloria managed to put away an opponent.
That's the burden of being a so-called "knockout artist" — people want to see the knockouts. And not just once in a while, either.
Not all of this drought has been Viloria's failing, of course. In the July no-contest, Alberto Rossel was being measured for a place on the canvas when a head butt forced a cessation of hostilities. Then, there was the 12-round yawner in which Javier Lagos chose self preservation over attempting one-punch glory, deciding to tango rather than tangle with Viloria.
The rematch with Rossel was wasted with a sloppy effort in a 12-round unanimous decision that even Viloria's corner termed "lackluster" and "disappointing." Then, the last time out, Viloria bruised his right hand en route to a unanimous 12-round decision over Alejandro Moreno.
All of which brings Viloria back home looking for a knockout and unlikely to leave disappointed. Here, the combination of a partisan crowd and the matchup with Leon should help Viloria once again demonstrate knockout form.
Leon (14-6, 6 KOs), who usually fights two weight divisions lighter as a minimum weight (105 pounds), shouldn't have either the strength or the punch to stay with the 112-pound Viloria over the scheduled 10-round distance.
After bouts that have taken Viloria to West Virginia, New York (twice) and Connecticut without a KO to show for it, this is one homecoming that should be a knockout.
