By Chris Williams: Former two division world champion Brian Viloria (36-4, 22 KOs) says he’s really looking forward to his title shot against unbeaten WBC flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs) in their fight on HBO pay-per-view on October 17th on the undercard of the Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux fight card from Madison Square Garden in New York.
Viloria, 34, thinks that the 28-year-old Roman Gonzalez has never been tested by a puncher like him before during his career, and he can’t wait to get him inside the ring so that he can start bouncing shots off his chin one after another.
“I think his weakness is he hasn’t been tested by a puncher like myself and we’ll also have to see if he can withstand pressure,” Viloria said via philstar.com. “Without giving too much away, we just need to come in great shape and let my hands go.”
I think Viloria seems to be forgetting that Gonzalez beat Juan Francisco Estrada in 2013. This is the same Estrada that beat Viloria not long ago. If Gonzalez hasn’t been tested then I think Viloria seems to be unaware of who exactly Gonzalez has fought before during his career.
If Viloria is serious about wanting to go right into the teeth of Gonzalez’s offense on October 17th, then I hope for Viloria’s sake that his trainer has a good bottle of smelling salts to help revive him after he gets knocked out because I don’t see Viloria lasting more than one or two rounds if he goes right at Viloria and tries to trade shots with him. Viloria is too much of an old timer to fight like that against Gonzalez, and he’s got too much mileage on his to be trying to trade with a younger and much stronger Gonzalez.
Viloria has never fought anyone with the kind of punching power that Gonzalez has, and I don’t think he’s going to be ready for the kinds of shots he’s going to be forced to eat in this fight. I think it’s going to go really bad for Viloria with him getting blasted into oblivion before long.
“From the moment I wake up to even dreaming about the fight, it’s all I think of now,” said Viloria. “I’m pulling out all the stops to prepare for this. I’m bringing in strength and conditioning trainers and basically working hard in the gym like never before.”
I don’t think it’s going to help Viloria any to be obsessing about the Roman Gonzalez fight because nothing can help him. Viloria might as well be thinking about what will happen if he gets nailed by a huge tsunami because that’s what it’s going to be like when he’s in the ring with Gonzalez on October 17th. Viloria might as well be trying to stop a tsunami by standing in front of it and throwing a punches as it hits him full force and knocking him tumbling to the surf.
Instead of obsessing about the Gonzalez fight, Viloria should be working out on the track to build up his running skills, because he’s going to need to be fleet of foot for him to be able to survive for any length of time against a force of nature like Gonzalez.
An aging old toothless tiger can’t stand in front of a young puncher like Gonzalez and hope to turn him away. If Viloria tries to actually fight Gonzalez instead of doing the smart thing and running from him, then I see this fight ending really badly for Viloria with him getting knocked out in front of the entire world. I think it would be far better for Viloria to play it safe and try and use his stamina to run from Gonzalez.
It’s nice that Viloria is talking about bringing in a strength and conditioning coach to help him with his conditioning for the fight, but I think it’s only good if the focus is on Vioria’s cardio to build him up so he can run for the hills once Gonzalez enters the ring. Let’s be real about this; If Viloria actually tries to trade with Gonzalez, it’s going to be a massacre and an ugly one at that. They’ll be picking up the broken pieces of Viloria all over the ring after the slaughter is over with.
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