Brian Viloria In The Best Shape Of His Career (Photo : Jhay Oh Otamias)
Former unified flyweight world champion, Brian "The Hawaiian Punch" Viloria (36-5, 22 KO's) challenged unbeaten pound-for-pound king Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez (44-0, 38 KO's) in October of last year, but according to the Filipino-American prizefighter he still has some unfinished business with the sport.
It was Viloria's 41st professional bout over a career spanning 15 years and it was his biggest challenge, one that he did not disappoint despite being stopped by Gonzalez in the ninth round of a scheduled 12-round flyweight title bout.
"It was an honor to fight, not only a great fighter, but also a great person, inside and outside the ring," said Viloria.
"[Gonzalez] was a very personable and humble guy. For me to go up against a fighter like him, it was great. It was great to see how well I would do against a guy who is considered pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world. As a fighter, you always want to be fighting against the best fighters in the world, so I got my chance and it was a great experience," he added.
Viloria gave a great account of himself, regardless of the way the fight ended. Fans can recall seeing Viloria in the best shape of his life physically, which translated to a great performance in trying to usurp Gonzalez from boxing's top spot.
But it wasn't meant to be and Gonzalez ended up proving that he was the real deal in taking care of a dangerous fighter like Viloria, who was in turn also his biggest test to date.
Since the bout however, Viloria appears to be ready to move on and proceed with the next stage of his career.
"I still feel like I have a few more fights left in the tank. We'll see when we sit down with the team to figure out what moves we can make at this point," said the 35-year old fighter from Waipahu, Hawaii.
"I still want to rematch [Juan Francisco] Estrada. There's a few guys out there that I want to go up against before I call it quits. For me, I'm just going to have to sit down with my management and just try to see what we could do at this point but there are many more fights out there that I'm interested in and a lot of people would want to see too," Viloria added.
"So it's not the end of the road for me now, it's just a matter of which fights are available for me out there."
