Roman Gonzalez, right, of Nicaragua lands a left punch to the face of Brian Viloria in the eighth round of a WBC flyweight title bout at Madison Square Garden in New York.
AP Photo
BRIAN Viloria was taking too much of a beating before the referee stepped in, sealing the Filipino-Hawaiian’s technical knockout (TKO) loss to the unbeaten Nicaraguan Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in their flyweight title fight on Sunday (Philippine time) at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, USA.
The ending came at the 2:53 mark of the ninth round.
The hard-punching Gonzalez upped his record to 44-0 with 38 knockouts as he made Viloria his third Filipino victim. His previous Filipino victims being the slugger Gonzalez Rocky Fuentes and Eriberto Gejon.
The loss might have sent Viloria to retirement as he absorbed his fifth defeat with 36 wins, 22 coming by way of knockouts.
Gonzalez is tipped to fight next two-division world champion and reigning WBO light-flyweight king Donnie “Ahas” Nietes.
On the same day that Gonzalez score a huge win, Nietes also emerged victorious against Juan Alejo in StubHub Center in Carson, California.
It was the third time that Gonzalez defended his WBC world flyweight title. Early in the fight, Viloria landed several big right hooks to the chin and left hooks to the body.
Gonzalez picked up the pace in round two where he started tagging Viloria with uppercuts and body shots. Gonzalez went on to knockdown the 34-year-old Viloria in the third round with a hard right.
Viloria still put up a tough stand after that but started to slow down in the ensuing rounds. Viloria’s trainer Marvin Somodio seemed ready to throw in the towel in the seventh round but hisward still showed signs of life and gamely took Gonzales’ relentless combinations.
Before the ninth round began, ringside physicians rushed to Viloria’s corner to consult if he was still willing to fight.
With his back to the wall, Viloria pressed on and even managed to land a clean left hook on Gonzales’ body.
But Gonzalez came up with another rampage, pinning Viloria against the ropes and unleashing a flurry of punches that prompted the referee to call a halt to the fight.