From the barangays to Macao

It all had to do with age and, possibly a training regimen that may not have provided for a 12-round war of attrition against a young bull – that’s the painful story behind Brian Viloria losing his WBA and WBO super flyweight titles to Juan Francisco Estrada of Sonora, Mexico in the Cotai Arena at the Venetian Resort in Macao Saturday evening.

To say that age and perhaps, an underestimation of Estrada’s capacity to absorb his punches were the crucial factors in the bout is not to take credit away from Estrada. The Mexican was clearly in superb condition and scouted Viloria well. The Mexican unleashed his uppercuts whenever the shorter Viloria lunged forward to engage him at close quarters and combined the same vicious uppercuts with body punches that certainly took the steam away from Viloria from the eighth round, the turning point of the bout.

Estrada applied additional relentless pressure from the eighth round and appeared to become even stronger and more confident as he became unmindful of the bombs that Viloria was throwing his way, bombs that would have decked less prepared and opponents older than Estrada’s 22 years. Estrada started to outpunch Viloria, probably at the rate of 3:1 with most of his punches landing on Viloria’s body (some clearly low blows which referee Genaro Rodriguez mysteriously failed to call low blows and penalize Estrada).

For Estrada, who had just come off a loss by unanimous decision to junior flyweight Roman Gonzalez (and despite the loss still earned a crack at Viloria), the victory over Viloria will certainly give the Mexican the attention he feels he deserves. Estrada’s record improved to 23-2-0, 18 KOs.  Viloria, on the other hand, is now, 32-4-0, 19 KOs. It was the first title fight won by Estrada and only the second fight of Estrada outside of Mexico, the last one before the Viloria fight was in Los Angeles in November 2012 against Gonzalez. His limited exposure will probably undergo radical changes with this upset victory over Viloria.

What’s next for Viloria? What’s next for Estrada? The two questions are intertwined mainly because the three judges had varying views on the outcome of the fight: Levi Martinez called it 115-113 for Viloria while the other two judges, Michael Pernick had it 116-111 and Francisco Martinez saw it 117-111, both for Estrada.

For Viloria, a return bout with Estrada does make sense provided he’s able to make adjustments to his fight plan that takes into account the youth and height advantage of Estrada.

Retirement has been mentioned as it was bruited about when he lost by TKO in the 12th round after the referee stopped his fight with Panama’s Carlos Tamara in January 2010 at the Cuneta Astrodome as Viloria was on the verge of collapse. Viloria lost his IBF light flyweight title in that fight but rebounded back into the victory trail with a six-win streak that started with a split decision victory over Omar Soto, followed by an eighth round TKO of the Mexican, Giovani Segura in December 2011, and embellished by a ninth round TKO over erstwhile tormentor Omar Niño Romero to retain his WBO title. A stunning 10th round TKO of Herman “Tyson” Marquez to retain his WBO title in November 2012 in Home Depot in California further cemented his hold on the division as it marked the first time since 1965 that the flyweight title was unified.

For Estrada, a rematch with either Viloria or Gonzalez should make sense. A fight with Marquez should be interesting.  A bout with Edgar Sosa, to whom Viloria lost by majority decision in 2007,  is worth considering.  The winner of the Sosa-Segura fight on May 25 should put him in line against Estrada.

The most intriguing prospect is an Estrada-Milan Melindo match up. Melindo fought in the undercard of Estrada-Viloria and handily dispatched Indonesia’s Tommy Seran in the fourth round. Melindo is now 28-0, 11 KO, which reflects a respectable 40 percent knockout rate. Seran dropped to 23-2, 14 KO.

Melindo, 25, hails from Cagayan de Oro and fought for the first time outside the Philippines last Saturday. A product of Tony Aldeguer’s ALA stable, Melindo has fought a number of times in Quezon City through our efforts to promote boxing at the grassroots. We worked with Aldeguer and my councilor-son, Joseph, to bring Melindo twice to Manila several years ago.

On February 2, 2006, on the feast of San Pedro de Bautista in San Francisco del Monte, we pitted Melindo against Ruther del Castillo. Melindo won by TKO in the fifth round. On May 5, 2007, ALA and our group had Melindo fight in Barangay Bahay Toro against Wendil Cajoles whom he beat in 10 rounds.

We (and Aldeguer, for sure) will therefore feel a sense of personal accomplishment if Melindo  gets a chance to fight Estrada and would be ecstatic if Melindo prevails, as we think he can.