Six days after losing his IBF light-flyweight crown to Carlos Tamara, Viloria still carried the signs of his gallant 12-round battle with the younger and hungrier Colombian when he faced a small group of mediamen at the Manila Hotel.
His face was puffy, which he said was because of all the salt tablets he’d taken the past few days, and sported a bandage over his left eye, which was cut and needed some stitches to close. He said he had gained more than 20 pounds since Saturday.
Viloria talked about the fight, which he led most of the way before he just ran out of gas, and said there’s no one else to blame but himself. He also took his hat off to the referee, Bruce McTavish, for stepping in before things could get worse.
“First, I feel great to be out of the hospital. I felt like time stopped while I was there,” said Viloria, who spent a couple of days at the Makati Medical Center where he was brought moments after the fight, after he “fainted” out of pure exhaustion.
“I put everything, every last ounce of my energy to that fight. I tried to give what the fans wanted. And that’s the nature of this sport,” said Viloria, all set to fly back to the United States today with his fiancee, LA-based Filipina nurse Erika Navarro.
Viloria was ahead on all scorecards until the end of the eighth round, and could have won the fight had he chosen to run away from Tamara, the 26-year-old veteran of the 2004 Athens Olympics.
“But that’s not me. If I wanted to run I would have joined the marathon. It’s the fighter in me that always comes out, regardless of the situation. It takes over me, and I would rather stand there toe to toe (than run away). That’s my nature as a fighter,” he said.
Viloria took Tamara’s best punches but was never knocked down. He fell down twice, though, but it was because he lost his balance in the final round as he took wild swings at Tamara. He said he never got hurt during the fight, and he was telling the truth.
He knew he hurt Tamara a couple of times, but just couldn’t finish him off. In fact, the Colombian’’s face looked worse than Viloria’s after the fight which had the crowd at the Cuneta Astrodome chanting Viloria’s name before, during and after the fight.
“What happened in the last round,” he said, “was that your mind wanted to fight to keep going but when dehydration gets in it doesn’t mind what your mind tells you. Everything just shuts down. My body was so dehydrated it just shut down. And when your body shuts down you can’t help it,” said Viloria.
He said he would consult with the people around him, including his manager Gary Gittelsohn, trainer Robert Garcia, cutman Ruben Gomez, and of course, Erika, whom he said is always there to help him “keep things in perspective.”
Garcia and Gomez said maybe it’s about time for Viloria, now 29 and not getting any younger, to retire, but said they’d respect the boxer’s decision, and would stick around if indeed he decides to continue fighting.
It seems that will be the case.
“Maybe I need to look back and see if I need to move up. Maybe I need to go up to 112 or 115. I was 108 since I was fourteen and maybe it’s time for me to let my body grow,” said Viloria, who had gone up to 112 a couple of years ago, but had to slide back down to 108 where he’d won the world title twice.
“I don’t need to come up with the decision right now. I will sit down with my team and see what the best move is. I love the sport and I hear a lot saying it’s time to retire. But I already told you I would rather die doing what I love than do something that I don’t love,” he said.
“It (decision) will come to me and I’ll know. Maybe when I get to LA that will come. And when I know what I’ll do I will let everybody know. Is the glass half empty or half full? I’d like to look at it as half full,” said Viloria, who added that he always wanted to be a reporter who’d cover boxing, basketball and football.
Erika, who sat to Viloria’s left, said she’s with him all the way.
“I have full confidence in him and whatever he chooses I will support him. I will support him a hundred percent,” she said.
For now, that’s all Brian wants to hear.
Source: Abac Cordero | Philstar.com
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