VILORIA LOSES, CONCEPCION WINS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 15 Apr 2007
Top Rank Promotions “Blaze of Glory” fight card at the Alamadome in San Antonio, Texas got off to a great start with the clash between promising Filipino super bantamweight Bernabe Concepcion and Texan Benjamin Flores. But although the predominantly Mexican fans applauded the flurries of Flores early in the fight, it was Concepcion who was in control of the action most of the way.
Concepcion eventually prevailed on the scorecards of all three judges with two of them scoring it 97-93 and the third judge 96-94 . The win improved Concepcion’s record to 20-1-1 with 10 knockouts while Flores dropped to 14-3 with 4 KO’s.
Concepcion who is managed by former boxer Ajoe Jaro in partnership with American Dante Ortiz was coming off a fourth round TKO win over Koream Jae Choon Moon last February 25 in Baguio after earlier making a successful US debut with a ten round unanimous decision over Joksan Hernandez on November 18 last year.
The highly touted Brian “Hawaiian Punch” Viloria, the one shot former WBC light flyweight champion lost in his bid to regain the vacant title after Mexican Omar Nino was stripped of the crown. Nino stunned Viloria to win the title and then successfully defended it in a rematch but was found positive for a banned substance in a routine test conducted after the title defense last year and was stripped of the title..
Boxing Scene reported that Viloria appeared to fade in the later stages of the fight and was “in serious trouble in the final two rounds and was close to being stopped in the final round.” Viloria appeared to be slightly ahead after three rounds but Sosa fought back and landed some telling punches over the next three.
Boxing Scene said Viloria looked flat and although Sosa’s face appeared to have a lot more damage than Viloria’s, the Mexican stunned Viloria more than once and was ahead after nine rounds before a big finish assured him of a majority decision that saw the pro-Mexican crowd go crazy. Judges Max De Luca and Jesses Reyes scored it for Sosa 115-113 while the third judge Burt Clements who also made a mistake in scoring the first round in the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight scored it a draw 114-114 and was loudly booed. Both fighters had busted up faces at the end of the fight.
In a post fight interview Viloria claimed he “did enough to win but Sosa stepped it up in the championships rounds and that made the difference.” With the win Sosa improved to 27-5 with 14 KO’s while Viloria dropped to 19-2-1 with 12 KO’s.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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