From his ringside seat at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City, Manila, Philippines, boxing manager Gary Gittelsohn watched with intensity as the partisan crowd cheered on his fighter, IBF flyweight champion Brian Viloria of Hawaii, in defense of his crown against Colombian-born Carlos Tamara of North Bergen, N.J., on Jan. 23.
By the seventh round of their 108-pound clash, the 29-year-old Viloria (pictured at right), having hurt his 26-year-old rival on several occasions, was trying to do what his fans appeared to be asking of him as he pushed for his eighth consecutive victory, his 16th career knockout, and his 27th win against only two losses.
"Brian was dictating a pace in this fight that I had never seen before. And the crowd, which was very much a pro-Brian Viloria crowd in Manila, was urging him to finish the job because he had Tamara seriously hurt many times during the fight," said Gittelsohn.
"It was a torrid pace. If this were an HBO fight, and they had punch stats there, it would be off of the charts," said Gittelsohn. "And at one point in the seventh round, Brian just let it all go to finish Tamara."
The scene was similar to Viloria's performance against Ulises Solis in the Philippines in April of 2009, at the nearby Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila.
In that fight, Viloria scored a sensational 11th-round knockout of Solis, who had entered their fight with a record of 28-1-2 and 20 KOs, was riding an unbeaten streak of 10-0-1 with seven KOs, and had defended his crown nine times with five KOs.
Like Solis (pictured at far right, with Viloria standing), who had never before been stopped before Viloria finished him with a perfectly-placed right hand, Tamara "was a very tough fight," said Gittlesohn, adding that "Carlos Tamara was a really game, very, very determined, very tough opponent."
But against Tamara, things would end much differently for Viloria.
"Brian was well in control of the fight [with Tamara] for nine rounds, or at least through the end of the first eight rounds. But in the ninth round, it just seemed like he hit a wall," said Gittelsohn.
"It was a hot arena, and it as a quick pace, and certainly all of the earmarks and certainly all of the ingredients for dehydration were there -- especially between two guys who had done everything that they could to make weight for the fight," said Gittelsohn. "And with a pace that was as torrid as this, and especially with this all out effort to close the show, it seems natural that he could have dehydrated. So in the 12th round, I don't know, it just sort of happened."
Although far ahead on the scorecards, an exhausted Viloria faded over the last four rounds, during which the younger fighter seized the moment and turned up the pressure.
By the 12th, Viloria could no longer hold off his opponent, who surged in an effort to win his fourth straight fight, his 15th by knockout, and to improve to 21-4 since losing his WBO crown by unanimous decision to Omar Andres Narvaez in January 2008.
Tamara cornered a badly-fatigued Viloria in the final round and nailed him repeatedly before referee Bruce McTavish stepped in to protect the soon-to-be ex-champion. In the end, Tamara's TKO victory came at one minute, 45 seconds of the 12th round.
Viloria collapsed in his changing room minutes after the bout, and was rushed from the arena in an ambulance to a hospital where he received a brain CAT scan, as well as neck and chest X-rays.
"I'm just happy to be able to report that all of his scans came back normal, as well as all of his bloodwork. It was just a case of severe dehydration, and the bloodwork bore that out. We later learned that Brian was completely dehydrated, which resulted in his collapsing in the dressing room after the fight," said Gittelsohn.
"Had Brian been able simply to even stand up for the 12th round, even after losing the ninth, 10th and 11th round, he would have retained his title," said Gittelsohn. "Because, by any objective measure, he was way ahead on the scorecards."
Gittelsohn said Viloria is "coming back from the Philippines on Sunday [Jan. 31,] and we'll regroup," adding, "after a while, we'll sit down and figure out how to pick up the pieces and where to place them."
Viloria had once considered giving up boxing after his sixth-round knockout of Ruben Contreras in May 2005 left Contreras unconscious and eventually near death.
Like Viloria, Contreras collapsed in the ring. But Contreras had suffered a severe head injury, which led to a blood clot in his brain. Contreras was hospitalized and placed into a medically-induced coma following emergency brain surgery.
Contreras recovered enough to be at ringside for Viloria's next bout -- a first-round knockout of Eric Ortiz in September 2005 that earned Viloria the WBC crown. Before entering the ring against Ortiz, Viloria, nearly in tears, embraced and spoke to Contreras.
Gittelsohn said he thought of Contreras and other fighters, some of whom have died from punishment, when he witnessed Viloria's post-fight peril.
"In the locker room, when he collapsed, I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack. I started sweating, my pulse was racing, and I saw shades of all of these kids that have recently had swelling on the brain," said Gittelsohn, with whom Viloria said he "sat down down," and "needed to really, really think about it and to know whether going on with the sport was the right thing to do" following the Contreras bout.
"I didn't want to lose Brian in the worst way. It was a nightmare of indescribable proportions after the fight with Carlos Tamara, and we were devastated," said Gittelsohn. "At the end of the day, Brian got wonderful medical attention. I love this kid. He's special. And maybe that's a fault of mine. I fall in love with the fighters that I've represented over the years."
Trained by Robert Garcia, a former IBF super featherweight (130 pounds) titlest who went 35-3, with 25 KOs, Viloria's enthusiasm for the sport and the resumption of his career were reinvigorated in the aftermath of Contreras.
"I don't know the answer to how Brian became dehydrated, and that's one of the things I'm going to talk to the doctors about, because we had a perfect camp. But I don't know whether or not his body can naturally make 108 anymore," said Gittelsohn.
"I've seen fighters go for days drying out, but none of that happened with Brian, who made the weight. But Brian has fought at a light weight since the Olympics, when he fought at 106," said Gittelsohn. "So, 10 years later, he's gone from a boy to a man and he's still fighting at 108. I'm not sure that his body can naturally make that weight any longer."
Viloria told Philstar.com that no decision has been made concerning whether or not he will continue his career, but it is one that he will make when he returns to America and consults with Gittelsohn and Garcia.
"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 14, and maybe it's time for me to let my body grow," said Viloria, who has fought 21 times at weights ranging between 110-and-115.5 during his career.
"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," said Viloria. "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."
A polished speaker with matinee idol looks, Viloria has done work on some broadcasting of Manny Pacquiao's bouts, and told Philstar.com that he always has wanted to be a reporter who would cover boxing, basketball and football.
"It [the decision] will come to me and I'll know. Maybe when I get to LA that will come," said Viloria. "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."
Gittelsohn said that he "purposely stayed away from the subject" of retirement with Viloria, "But for me to speculate would be just that --it would be speculation."
"I thought, 'First things first,' I wanted to make sure that his health was 100 percent, and that's what I concentrated on. I wanted to make sure that he had my love and support. That's what I left him with when I left the Philippines and I knew that he was okay," said Gittelsohn.
"When Brian gets back here and we can reflect, objectively, on what happened, then, we're going to reach those important career decisions," said Gittelsohn. "The good news is that, medically, if he wanted to resume his career, he could, and there is nothing that happened in that fight that would prevent him from doing it."
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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