Brian Viloria KOs Tyson Marquez; Chocolatito Beats Estrada

Viloria, shot by Al Applerose.

LOS ANGELES-Nicaragua's ultra strong Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez passed a stiff test against Mexico's unheralded but resilient Juan Francisco Estrada to retain the WBA junior flyweight world title and WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria added the WBA title by knockout over Mexico's Hernan “Tyson” Marquez on Saturday night.

It was a bad night for Mexican fans, but a good night of action.

About 3,000 fans filled the lower half of the spacious Sports Arena with most in support of Nicaragua's Gonzalez (34-0, 28 KOs) who was making his second appearance in Southern California. Flags were waving and shouting for both Gonzalez and Estrada.

The champion started slowly as is his custom as Estrada worked up and down on Gonzalez's guard for the first two minutes of the first round. Then the Nicaraguan began to fire more frequently to the head and body, forcing Mexico's challenger to retreat.

Gonzalez stayed aggressive in the second round especially firing his patented left uppercut- right hand combination. Estrada was able to roll with most of the punches but still emerged at the end of the round with a bloody nose that never seemed to go way for the rest of the fight.

For most of the fight Gonzalez fired those left hooks that seemed to come slowly but when connecting made a loud thud. Estrada fired back with some short counters but couldn't seem to hurt the champion.

In the fourth round Estrada used several right-left combos to score and slow down Gonzalez's assault. He also managed to win the round with a five-punch combination.

For the rest of the fight Gonzalez used his power shots and accuracy to keep Estrada from mounting any kind of sustained rally but could never create distance by dominating any rounds. Still, Gonzalez was the aggressor and connecting enough to win most of the remaining rounds.

At the end of 12 rounds all three judges ruled in favor of the champion 116-112 twice and 118-110.

Viloria Now WBO and WBA flyweight champ

Viloria has been tabbed the “Mexican Killer” by a few journalists and he's been on a roll lately in beating fighters from south of the border. Once again he emerged victorious but “Tyson” Marquez proved an able and willing opponent.

During a furious exchange Viloria caught Marquez with a counter right hand to drop the Mexican for the count in round one. Marquez had hit the champion earlier and thought he had hurt him but it was a stumble.

Viloria's speed allowed him to go in and out with impunity. Marquez for all of his vaunted strength could not close the distance and was very conservative with his punch output after the first round.

In round five Viloria continued the landslide but at the end of the round was caught by a right hook and held on as Marquez fired away.

Marquez opened up the round firing away and caught Viloria with a right hook again that stunned the champion. Marquez went into attack mode and was firing dozens of blows on the champion who covered up but was taking some punishment. As the Mexican challenger slowed his output Viloria went into counter attack and during an exchange fired a fire-punch salvo with the right hand depositing Marquez on the floor once again. He beat the count.

Viloria used his speed and boxing ability to keep the Mexican challenger from getting too close to land those bombs. Though a few slipped in Viloria remained in control through round eight.

After eight lopsided rounds Viloria began to tire and Marquez saw the difference. The Mexican southpaw began to fire combinations up and down and caught Viloria flush with some left crosses. It was his best round of the fight so far.

Marquez opened the 10th round confident that Viloria was spent and began to fire with abandon. The trouble with that is Viloria was not as spent as Marquez thought and was caught flush with a counter left hook and down he went for the third time in the fight. This time, though he got up, he looked woozy and attempted to hold on. Viloria threw him to the ground. Marquez got up and attempted to hold again as Viloria measured for the knockout. Marquez's trainer Robert Garcia jumped on the apron to ask referee David Mendoza to stop the fight and he did at 1:01 of round 10.

Viloria becomes the WBA and WBO flyweight champion.

Other bouts

Garden Grove's undefeated Jessie Roman (13-0, 8 KOs) beat New York City's Angel Rios (9-16, 6 KOs) by decision after six rounds of a lightweight match up. There were no knockdowns in the inside clash but it was Roman's speed and combination punching that was the difference. Rios was never hurt by the hard punching Roman but couldn't muster enough punches.

Santa Ana's Rodrigo Garcia (12-0, 7 KOs) knocked out L.A.'s Octavio Narvaez (7-13-1) after surviving a first minute deluge of blows in the first round. Garcia was able to walk Narvaez down and fire four successive right hands to put him down for good. Referee Lou Moret stopped the fight at 1:14 of round two.

Philippine slugger Drian Francisco (23-1-1, 18 KOs) seemed surprised at Javier Gallo's (18-6-1, 10 KOs) for four rounds despite landing some significant bombs. But in round five Francisco accidentally butted Gallo in the head causing a cut and then landed some blows below the belt that referee Lou Moret did not catch. After about three resounding blows below the belt that hurt Gallo and rendered him impotent, the referee stopped the fight at 2:54 of round five.

Oxnard's Andrew Ruiz (4-0, 2 KOs) won a unanimous decision over L.A.'s Rufino Flores (2-5) after four rounds of a welterweight clash. There was plenty of back and forth action but Ruiz was more accurate over four rounds and won the decision.

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