By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Former two time world light flyweight champion Brian Viloria is in the best shape of his life for his crack at the WBO flyweight title held by Julio Cesar “Pingo” Miranda of Mexico at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday.

Viloria’s manager Gary Gittelsohn told the Daily Inquirer that the 30 year old Viloria who is now in Hawaii was “in the best shape of his life and is ready to become a three-time champion” although he predicted “it will be a tough fight.”

Gittelsohn said he had given into the unbelievable demands of the champion’s camp because he “just wanted to give Brian the opportunity. I don’t want him to wait any longer. He’s been working really hard in the gym and a tune-up fight at this point is only going to delay things.”

Viloria (28-3, 16 KO’s) has been training at the Kalihi Gym in Honolulu and the Maywood Gym in California in a determined effort to prove he still has what it takes to win another world title in a higher weight division ruled by the 31 year old Miranda who has a record of 35-5-1 with 28 knockouts.

ABC TV 5 will telecast the Viloria-Miranda title fight from Honolulu back-to-back with the ten round welterweight tune-up bout from Cancun, Mexico between Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez ( 52-5-1, 38 KO’s) and Colombian southpaw Likar Ramos ( 24-3, 18 KO’s) which include his last three fights which went a total of under ten rounds.

Hall-of-Fame referee Joe Cortez has been named by WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel as the referee for the WBO world flyweight title fight while the three judges will be Robert Byrd, Ruben Garcia and the Philippines Atty. Danrex Tapdasan.

The WBO supervisor will be vice president for the Asia Pacific region Leon Panoncillo.

Viloria has said “Each fight I treat it the way its supposed to be treated, real serious. No different for this one. The way I look at it, there’s more motivation for me. There’s a lot of things riding on this fight; a world title, I’m coming into the last few legs of my career so it’s that much more important for me to do well and win another one.”

The 30 year old Viloria won the WBC light flyweight title with a sensational 1st round knockout of Eric Ortiz on September 10, 2005 but subsequently lost the title to Omar Nino Romero. Viloria then went after the IBF title which he won with a spectacular 11th round knockout of the highly fancied champion Ulises Solis of Mexico on April 19, 2009 at the Araneta Coliseum.

Since moving up in weight after losing by a 12th round TKO to Carlos Tamara of Panama in an IBF title defense where he was well ahead on the scorecards of the judges at the time of the stoppage by referee Bruce McTavish, Viloria has scored back-to-back victories that put him in line for the title shot.

He won a ten round split decision over Omar Soto on July 10, 2010 and then scored a 7th round TKO over Thailand’s Liempetch Sor Veerapol on November 5, 2010.

Gittelsohn said Viloria has been training under a team led by Ruben Gomez with former fighter Jose Morales who “is really terrific on the conditioning end and great with the mitt work and goes running with Brian every morning at Griffith Park..” Also in Viloria’s corner will be Ruben Salazar who has been with Viloria since he was a young fighter and is confident Viloria will be a world champion once again.

Viloria’s manager said “I am really proud of his condition. He really looks good. I’m proud of his work ethic and the kind of determination that he needs in order to win. This is going to be a very tough fight against a very solid champion and Brian has his work cut out for him.”

Miranda won the vacant world title with a 5th round TKO of Filipino Richie Mepranum on June 12, 2010 and in his last defense scored a 4th round TKO over another Filipino Arden Diale last February 26.