By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

"How come you haven't been fighting?" boxer Brian Viloria says he has been asked with nagging frequency. "What happened to all your fights?"

What, indeed. A year ago at this time, friends of the unbeaten (14-0, eight knockouts) Waipahu flyweight were asking him for tickets to his fights. Lately, it has been more likely that they've been asking him where he's been and what he's been up to.

No longer is it the bouts that go to a 12-round decision or the opponents who play hide and seek that frustrate the former Sydney Olymp-ian. It has been the waiting that goes on between fights while all the ownership and promotional issues get sorted out.

For all the punches he's absorbed and training he's put in, "It is the fights outside the ring, not the ones in it, that are harder," Viloria said.

Having roared into the pro game in 2001 intent on making a quick name for himself, Viloria is learning that patience is a virtue not easily acquired when you're chasing a dream at full speed. That even the most can't-miss of career blueprints can miss.

A career that began full of steam when he was fighting regularly, sometimes twice a month, has lurched along of late and might test his hoped-for timetable of a championship fight within four years.

A dispute over his ownership rights as a pro tied him up for eight months before the break with Lou DiBella allowed him to get back in the ring two weeks ago with a 12-round decision. Until then, he'd had one round since April 15.

Now that he's shaken off some of the rust with the route-going win over Juan Alfonso Keb-Baas, Viloria says he's eager to get back on the regular pace again, eager to renew his climb through the ranks. Especially if it means, as hoped, a return home for another fight in Honolulu in April or May.

But, again, there are loose ends, and a new promoter to replace DiBella needs to be secured. Viloria waits while negotiations continue on an agreement, possibly with Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing LLC.

Promotional rights, as Viloria has come to learn the hard way, are not something to be signed away quickly.

"I don't want to make the same mistakes again," he says of the deliberate process.

What's more, cable TV appearances and lucrative paydays aren't easy to come by in his weight division, and neither are the caliber of promoters who can supply them while moving a fighter toward a championship fight.

In that, Viloria need only look at the career of Jesus Salud, who came out of the same Waipahu Boxing Club, to glimpse the ups and downs inherent in the profession.

"For me, the waiting is the toughest part," Viloria said.

Spoken like a true action fighter.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.