Brian Viloria v Omar Nino Romero!

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UPDATED: A lot is at stake for Brian Viloria when he defends his light-flyweight title against Mexican Omar Nino Romero in the second of OLN’s monthly Top Rank shows.

The Japanese media are excited about the prospect of Viloria going to Japan to meet that nation’s hugely popular Koki Kameda. “We would be very interested in making that fight happen but there have not been any talks as yet with Kameda’s people,” Viloria's manager, Gary Gittelsohn, said from Los Angeles this week. “It would be the biggest fight at 108 pounds since Michael Carbajal fought Chiquita Gonzalez, a very big fight that would be watched by millions of people. In Kameda’s last fight [a controversial title-fight win over Venezuela’s Juan Landaeta] more than half the population of Japan watched the fight.”

Viloria’s trainer, Freddie Roach, does not want Viloria thinking ahead to a potential light-flyweight megafight with Kameda. “I want Brian to go out and take care of business with this guy first,” Roach said, “and the more impressive he looks the better it will be when we talk with the Japanese people.”

Roach has seen Romero on tape and describes him as a tough, come-forward fighter, on the slow side but dangerous with a looping right hand.

“I don’t want Brian pulling back from this guy,” Roach said. “I like Brian best when he’s aggressive and lets the big shots go, not when he’s laying back and countering. If he backs up and lets this guy come forward it will be to the other guy’s advantage.”

As the fight takes place in Las Vegas two nights before the Hasim Rahman-Oleg Maskaev heavyweight title bout there will be an extra buzz to the proceedings.

Viloria, 25, has the chance to look dazzling against an opponent who has a respectable record (23-2-1, 10 KOs) but does not appear to be particularly dangerous, although I suppose one never knows with fighters who are somewhat unknown. “There are no easy fights in this weight class,” Gary Gittelsohn said. “In the lighter weight divisions they’re all excellent fighters. This guy will be in the fight.”

Romero, 30, was stopped in both of his losses but he comes into the bout having won his last four fights, and 10 years ago he stopped a then inexperienced Jorge Arce in the first round — each boxer was 4-0 at the time. That was a long time ago, true, but to have beaten even a novice Jorge Arce is a good result. And in the fight before this, Romero outpointed Ricardo Barajas, a hard hitter who was at the beginning of his career but went on to challenge for the bantamweight title.

What has Romero done lately, though? Well, last year he outpointed Carlos Bouchan, a former Mexican champion who was on a five-bout winning run, and in his last fight he outpointed a boxer with a record of 14 wins and five losses.

The impression I get is that Romero is a capable fighter who comes to win. Viloria, though, is something special, a world amateur champion and Olympic representative who has won 19 bouts, with one no decision, due to a clash of heads, against a boxer he defeated in a rematch.

Viloria would seem to be in a different league to Romero, but in his last fight the “Hawaiian Punch” had a harder time than expected when he won a 12-round decision over the veteran Jose Antonio Aguirre, who was able to hit him a bit too often for comfort with right hands.

I have noticed that in some fights there seems a loss of concentration with Viloria, as if he just drifts a little bit. This did not apply, of course, when he captured the title with an electrifying one-round win over the usually durable Erik Ortiz. Yet in his next fight, against Aguirre — who had been stopped in seven rounds by Ortiz — we saw Viloria in a bit of a struggle.

There is a lot to like about Viloria, who is fast, classy and capable of punching quite explosively. I think that if he is focused he can probably look very good against Romero. There have been Viloria fights, though, when I thought he would stop his opponent and instead the bouts went the distance — such as the one with Aguirre.

In this fight, I get the feeling that we will see Viloria looking to make a strong impression.

It might not be all that easy. Mexican boxers are as a rule tough and courageous, as we all know. Romero has all to gain and nothing to lose, which means he might rise to the occasion. “Romero will be dangerous for the first six rounds,” veteran Mexican manager Rafael Mendoza said over the phone from Guadalajara this week. “I think he’s too slow for Viloria, but he could go the distance.”

If Viloria lost it would have to be considered a shocking upset, and there is something of a showcase feel to this fight.

As I have not had the chance to see Romero I frankly do not know what to expect from him, but Viloria to win in about eight rounds seems as good a guess as any.