By Dan Ambrose: Boxing fans can tune-in this Saturday night to watch WBC flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs) defend his WBC 112lb title against #1 WBO, #2 WBC Brian “The Hawaiian Punch” Viloria (36-4, 22 KOs) on HBO pay-per-view in the co-feature bout on the Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. David Lemieux fight card at Madison Square Garden in New York.
What time does Gonzalez vs. Viloria start? This Saturday, on October 17th at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.
Where to watch Gonzalez-Viloria? Live on HBO pay-per-view in United States. On BoxNation in UK. It starts at 2:00 a.m. The fight can be seen on Sky 437/HD 490, Virgin 546, and Talk Talk 415.
How much does it cost to watch Gonzalez-Viloria/Golovkin vs. Lemieux card? $49.99 in United States.
The Gonzalez vs. Viloria fight is a huge one for both fighters, especially Gonzalez. He’s on the verge of becoming a big star overnight in America after his recent impressive 2nd round knockout win over Edgar Sosa last May on the undercard of Golovkin’s fight against Willie Monroe Jr.
The fight was televised on regular HBO, and Gonzalez won a lot of new boxing fans with that performance, many of which were seeing him for the very first time. Perhaps never before has a fighter won fans overnight the way that the 28-year-old Gonzalez did with his win over Sosa. Now Gonzalez can win even more boxing fans by going out and proving that he can beat a top notch former champion in 34-year-old Viloria.
“It definitely motivates me to be able to fight at Madison Square Garden and HBO is giving me the opportunity,” said Gonzalez. “And I need to perform well so that HBO continues to give me the opportunity to fight the best fighters.”
There’s no question that Gonzalez had a lot of pressure on him in this fight. Unlike Viloria, Gonzalez is young and hitting his prime. Viloria has already had his prime and he’s clearly on the downside of his career, even though he’s still performing at a high level.
If Gonzalez fails to impress or if he gets beaten by Viloria, then he could miss his big chance of becoming a star. Right now, he’s moved to the top spot in the pound-for-pound rankings without having to beat anyone really good.
Beating Viloria and then hopefully defeating Juan Francisco Estrada a second time will give Gonzalez the wins he needs to cement his position as the No.1 fighter in boxing.
“The styles make the fights,” said Viloria. “A lot of people know that it is going to be an action packed fight and a lot of people gravitate towards that. I want it more. I have preparing myself for this type of event. I have been wanting this for this so long. I have so much more fire now.”
Viloria has won all of his fights in the last two years since losing to Estrada in 2013, but he’s not really faced anyone good since his loss.
Viloria and Gonzalez share a common opponent in Estrada. While Gonzalez won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, Viloria lost. Two of the judges had the Gonzalez-Estrada fight close, while the third judge had it wide for Gonzalez at 118-110. Estrada really didn’t fight to win. He was just moving constantly to try and escape Gonzalez’s punches, and it was difficult for me to give him more than one or two rounds.
You can make an argument that Gonzalez won all 12 rounds against Estrada, because he landed the harder shots in every round, and he was the one on the attack at all times. It’s unclear what fight the two judges were watching who scored it 116-112 and 116-112 for Gonzalez. They were giving Estrada a lot of mercy rounds that he actually should have lost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F2XGbwpxuk
If Viloria doesn’t run in this fight against Gonzalez on Saturday, then I don’t see how the 34-year-old Viloria can win. He doesn’t have the kind of power or chin for him to stand in the pocket and fight Gonzalez the way that he needs to fight him in order to make it the full 12 rounds. Viloria could very well get knocked out even faster than Edger Sosa did if he doesn’t fight like Estrada did by running the entire fight.
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