In what might be a candidate for fight of the year, the clash between Hawaiian Brian the “Hawaiian Punch” Viloria (32-3, 19KO’s) and Hernan Marquez (34-3,25KO’s) is a fight that most were glad to see. Not much defense, but punches flying and fighters giving everything they had in every round of the fight. Viloria was defending his WBO featherweight title for the third time against Marquez’s WBA flyweight title, which Marquez was defending for the third time as well.
It didn’t take long for the excitement to begin because in the first round as both fighters were landing punches in close, Viloria landed a big punch and put Marquez down to the canvas. He quickly recovered and made it through to the end of the round.
Although Viloria won, he was given probably one of the biggest tests of his boxing career. In the fifth round Viloria landed on the canvas himself by a huge left hook by the southpaw Marquez. Although Viloria did get caught in the fifth, he came back and put Marquez on the canvas with a big right hand toward the end of the round. This was the most exciting round of the fight to that point.
The next three rounds were even but the scorecards ringside had Viloria ahead 67-63. In the ninth round, it was clear that Viloria had the quicker hand speed and that Marquez was heavy handed. In this round, Marquez put the pressure on Viloria as he followed him all around the ring as Viloria settled in just defense. Marquez clearly won this round. It seemed at this point that Marquez had a lot left in the tank as the bell sounded.
But in the very beginning of the tenth round, and with the cards reading 85-83 for Viloria, Marquez was landing punches on Viloria in the corner and it looked like he was off to a good start. Then Viloria landed a lightning left hook and Marquez went down hard. He took the count and the fight continued and Viloria put on the pressure and just as he was landing a flurry of punches, Marquez’s corner threw in the towel. The fight was stopped at 1:01 of the 10TH round and Viloria not only defended his WBA flyweight belt, but he also claimed the WBO flyweight title as well.
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