Roman Gonzalez vs Brian Viloria

The first man to put Brian Viloria on the canvas was also the man who finally stopped him. Román González dropped the former flyweight champion in the third round at Madison Square Garden on 17 October 2015, then wore him down until referee Benjy Esteves Jr. intervened at 2 minutes 53 seconds of the ninth. The contest, fought before the sold-out crowd assembled for the Gennady Golovkin–David Lemieux card, was González’s defence of the WBC flyweight title.

Viloria began with purpose. He came forward in the opening round, worked to the body and found González with rights while the champion took time to measure him. González answered with an uppercut late in the round and became busier in the second, meeting Viloria’s attacks with short punches of his own. They traded at close range, but González was beginning to put combinations together where Viloria had relied more often on single blows.

The change became decisive in the third. A short right to the chin put Viloria down, and although he rose and fought back, González followed him with punches to the head and body. Viloria steadied himself sufficiently to answer with a right and left hooks, but another right shook his legs before the bell. He was bloodied and under pressure when he returned to his corner.

Viloria remained willing to exchange through the fourth and fifth. He landed a firm left hook in the fourth that briefly checked González, who replied with a succession of punches and resumed his work to the ribs. The champion kept advancing in the fifth, striking in twos and threes as Viloria stood his ground and answered. By the sixth, redness and swelling had appeared on the right side of Viloria’s face. González’s uppercuts and hooks continued to get through, while the challenger’s replies were fewer and less effective.

González pressed him towards the ropes in the seventh and eighth and landed repeated combinations. Viloria still threw punches and at times connected, but he could not sustain an attack or keep the champion off him. After the eighth, a ringside doctor examined the swelling on his face and allowed him to continue. Viloria found a right to the body and a left hook in the ninth, briefly making González give ground. The champion recovered, drove him back to the ropes and landed a final series of unanswered blows. Esteves stopped the contest with Viloria on his feet.

After eight completed rounds, the official scores were 78–73 on two cards and 79–72 on the third, all for González. The figures reflected a fight in which Viloria had made a sound start and continued to resist, but had been unable to match the champion’s sustained combination punching after the third-round knockdown.

Viloria was a hard test. He had won titles at light flyweight and flyweight, stopped Hernán Márquez, and came into Madison Square Garden determined to take the fight to González. I liked his start: he went to the body, threw with conviction and gave the champion something to think about. But once González found the timing for that short right in the third, Viloria was fighting uphill.

What separates González from plenty of busy little men is that his punches have a purpose. He would touch Viloria downstairs, bring the next shot up the middle and stay close enough to do it again. Viloria kept answering, but too often with one punch while González put three together. By the sixth, the damage around Viloria’s right cheek showed how regularly those combinations were getting through.

I respect Viloria for still trying to turn it around in the ninth. He caught González and briefly made him back off. It was his last good spell. González recovered, put him on the ropes and resumed landing cleanly. I thought the stoppage was right. Viloria had shown his quality early, which made González’s adjustment and sustained pressure all the more impressive.