WAIPAHU — Kekoa Balasi would like to be a world boxing champion like Brian Viloria some day, if only so he can hoist a championship belt over his shoulder.
“It’s heavy,” the 11-year-old Balasi said after holding Viloria’s IBF light flyweight world championship belt. “It’s nice. I wish I could get one like that.”

Balasi and about a dozen other youth boxers at the Waipahu Boxing Club looked up to Viloria today, even though many of them are nearly at eye level for the 5-foot-3 champion.
“He’s so fast,” Balasi said. “Punch, move, and punch again. Always countering. That’s what we try to do.”
Viloria, who won the IBF world title last month in the Philippines, made a triumphant return to his hometown today. He visited the Waipahu Boxing Club, and then was the centerpiece of a parade through Waipahu.
“This is where it all started for me,” said Viloria, 28. “To come back here and see all these future champions, all these past champions, all the fans, it means a lot to me. Fighting for Hawaiçi, for Waipahu, that’s always going to be a part of me.”
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