HUNGRY TAMARA SAYS HE'LL TAKE THE TITLE FROM VILORIA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 20 Jan 2010
Viloria.
In a clash of former Olympians, Colombia’s Carlos Tamara says he is a hungry fighter who will take the IBF light flyweight title away from Brian Viloria when they clash in the Solar Sports fight card “Collision Course” at the Cuneta Astrodome on Saturday morning.
Tamara made the statement at a well-attended Manila Hotel press conference at which Viloria, his trainer and former world champion Robert Garcia and WBO minimum weight champion Donnie Nietes were present.
While Viloria represented the United States in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and lost in a bum decision that often marred amateur boxing during the presidency of Prof. Anwar Chowdhry, Tamara wore the colors of Colombia and lost in the second round of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games but did better in the Pan American Games where he won the silver medal.
In an interview with www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Tamara said “I am in the best shape of my life. Your people here are going to see the best Carlos Tamara. I am here to beat Brian Viloria.”
Tamara said “I have been training for years for this fight. This is what I have been waiting for since I started boxing. I want to become a world champ. My condition is superior and I’m ready to dethrone Viloria.”
Tamara who enjoys a slight height and reach advantage over Viloria bragged “I bring everything. I bring speed, power and on Saturday the fans are going to see what I really bring to the table here and I am going to show the people and Viloria.”
While they are both former Olympians, Tamara stressed “this is at another level now and on Saturday the people are going to see the difference between Olympic fighters and professional fighters. They can expect to see a great fight on between two top pro fighters.”
Tamara said he had seen Viloria’s last title defense against Jesus Iribe and said “he is a great fighter but the hunger I’m bringing to this fight is going to be the difference in beating Viloria.” He said he had no problem fighting the champion in his hometown pointing out that “in the ring it's just going to be me and Viloria and not the fans or anything.”
Butch Sanchez, one of the trainers of Tamara who acted as interpreter told us that the fans are going to see a great fighter. It's going to be an enjoyable fight because Brian Viloria is a very good champion and Tamara is an excellent fighter so the fans will see a great fight.”
Sanchez said they will “exploit the height and reach advantage. Its what Brian himself said. It’s a technical fight and you explore as you go along. If the reach advantage proves to be an optimum point for him then we’ll continue to explore that but if inside fighting is what’s working we’ll continue to explore that. You got to adjust as the fight goes on.”
Former world champion Robert Garcia who trains Viloria said Viloria trains hard and is ready to defend his title while Viloria himself said he is almost at the peak of his career but doesn’t want to look beyond the fight with Tamara although we understand that he is aching to get a unification bout against undefeated Ivan Calderon of Puerto Rico.
Viloria told us he has “gained in confidence” although he conceded it would be a tough fight” but that he planned to carry the fight to Tamara and to “pressure him because I don’t see him fighting well going backwards so my combinations should be able to do the job and win the fight.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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