Macau—Juan Francisco “El Gallo” Estrada spoiled what could have been an all-Pinoy show in Macau when he outfought Brian “The Hawaiian Punch” Viloria to take the WBO and WBA world flyweight title belts at the Cotai Arena of Macau’s Venetian Hotel here late Saturday.
Judge Levi Martinez scored it 115-113 for Viloria, but judge Michael Pernick (116-111) and Judge Francisco Martinez (117-111) scored it for Estrada.
The 32-year-old Viloria dropped to his fourth loss (32W-4L, 19 KOs) while the 22-year-old Estrada from Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico improved to 23W-2L, 18 KOs. He also stopped Viloria’s winning streak against Mexican fighters.
Viloria stared the bout with a sharp jab and tried to control the tempo of the fight but Estrada easily countered with hard hooks to the body and head.
It was not just Estrada’s long reach that posed problems for Viloria but also his toughness.
Going into the sixth, with the crowd cheering for him, Viloria mixed his shots to the body and head. But Estrada proved resilient. Even when blood dripped from his nose, the Mexican never backed down and continued to charge forward.
Viloria’s face continued to swell going into the halfway mark. For every power punch Viloria threw, Estrada fired with more of his own.
The Mexican seemed the fresher fighter going into the latter part of the fight. Viloria managed to corner and nail the Mexican with hard shots but it was the Pinoy who was bleeding and reeling in the last two rounds.
Estrada will now defend his WBO belt against Milan Melindo of the Philippines sometime in August.
Melindo, on the other hand, stopped Tommy Seran of Indonesia in four rounds in the undercard.
The main feature of this card promoted by Top Rank was the pro debut of two-time Olympic medalist Zou Shiming of China, who easily beat Eleazar Valenzuela of Mexico by unanimous decision in four rounds.
Other undercard bouts saw Dodie Boy Penalosa,Jr beat Thai Namithra Sithsaithong by KO in the third round and Dave Penalosa stop another Thai, Cheroenchai Sithsaithong, in two rounds.
In the post-fight press conference, Viloria sported bandages on both of his eyebrows but still managed to make a joke about his appearance and apologized that he “looked different” compared to when he arrived.
Viloria apologized to the Filipino boxing fans for not retaining his belts but vowed to make a comeback and requested a rematch from Estrada.