Viloria to Retrace Roots, Get Hero's Welcome; Suico Loses
By Winchell Campos
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 25 Sep 2005
LOS ANGELES—Shortly after watching Randy Suico flub his chance of winning and reentering the big leagues, World Boxing Council light flyweight king Brian Viloria took the last plane out of Los Angeles and is expected to arrive in the Philippines at 4 a.m. Sunday on board a Philippine Airlines flight.
Viloria, the unbeaten, 24-year-old who easily knocked out the erstwhile Mexican champion Eric Ortiz in the first round under the Pacquiao-Morales double-header, showed excitement in his return trip to the Philippines. One of his main concerns is to reunite with his ailing grandfather in his native Narvacan, Ilocos Sur.
Viloria is expected to get a hero's welcome, meet with the President and sign endorsement deals with several companies. Solar Sports will also cover his two-week stay in the country where both of his parents were born.
Accompanying Viloria is his father Ben and American manager Gary Gittelsohn, who is equally happy to visit the Philippines for the first time. "Well, I have already sampled my first plate of adobo here (Los Angeles) but they say the native chicken tastes better in the Philippines," said Gittelsohn.
Viloria, a member of the 2000 US Olympics team, keeps a 19-0 record with 13 KOs. Right after the Olympics, "Hawaiian Punch" Viloria visited the Philippines and met up with his family and friends.
"Makaawat ak iti Ilocano," said the young Viloria, revealing that he is more at home in understanding and speaking a little of the dialect more than the national language, explicably because his parents spoke more Ilocano at home more than Tagalog.
The elder Viloria, who was also at ringside watching and cheering for Suico, was frustrated to see the Filipino lose the fight which was close and exciting. One judge, Chuck Hasset, scored it a draw, 95-95, like many ringsiders saw the fight. The two other judges, Ray Corona and Jack Reiss, saw it 99-91, for the former world champion Javier Jauregui.
PhilBoxing.com had it a draw, 95-95, concurring identically with Hasset's scorecard. The other two judges concurred in giving Jauregui rounds three, four, seven, eight and nine, while Suico, who looked for that one big punch all night, only won Round 10.
"Suico never took a seat in a stool during the break after each round," said Ben Viloria, observing trainer Juanito Ablaca and Japanese manager Joe Koizumi in the sidelines. A stool was provided but Suico's team decided not to use it, despite Viloria's offer at one time in the early rounds.
"The kid (Suico) has material. He has a great chin, he throws good combinations but he came up short," said Viloria, the main man behind Brian's blossoming career.
Truly, Suico, despite his height advantage, showed little defense, as he often got tagged with 1-2 counter combinations. The corner also failed to solve on how to attack the semi-crouched, old-school stance of Jauregui.
Ablaca, for his part, expressed dismay at how the other judges scored the fight. "Mas matatanggap ko pa sana kung mas dikit iyong scores," he said. He, however, accepted the fact that Suico would have lost in a closely-scored decision.
Koizumi said Suico's next fight will be his defense of the OPBF title before the end of the year.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Winchell Campos.
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