Espinoza Boxing: Roman Defeats Cardenas In Rematch, Targets Viloria

Friday night in front of a sold out crowd of 1,100 at the Quiet Cannon Country Club in Montebello, CA, flyweight contender Manny Roman overcame a first round knockdown to work toward an eight round unanimous decision win over Jose Luis Cardenas by scores of 77-74 twice and 76-75.

“Cardenas was tough throughout the whole fight,” said Roman who stayed undefeated and improved his record to 14-0-1 (5).

“In the later rounds I thought I might be able to finish him, but he proved too tough for that. It was a good shot he hit me with in the first that knocked me down but I was able to control the tempo from that point on.”

The bout was a rematch of a four round decision win by Roman in April, 2006.

With the win, the 20 year old Roman is looking toward a Southern California showdown with former world champion Brian Viloria.

“That’s the fight we want,” said manager Frank Espinoza. “I really liked what I saw from Manny in this fight. We’ve talked about him being more aggressive and using tighter combinations and I saw a lot of that tonight.

“I’d like to make the fight with Viloria, he’s a former world champion with more ring experience that Manny, but I think we’re ready. It would be a terrific fight in Southern California early next year.”

Roman is currently worked ranked #9 in the WBC rankings.