MANILA, Philippines - Mexican challenger Jesus Iribe may find the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu not to his liking when he slugs it out with Brian Viloria for the International Boxing Federation light flyweight championship Aug. 29.
Other than fighting before an expected hostile crowd, Iribe will be seeing action outside Mexico for the first time.
All 25 of his bouts were held in the land of burritos and tacos, with more than half of them fought at his native Culiaca, Sinaloa, Mexico
In contrast, a warm welcome greets Viloria upon return to his birth place as he defends his 108-pound title in the boxing card promoted by Solar Sports and dubbed “Island Assault”.
Still, even with everything going in his favor, Viloria is not about to take his Mexican opponent lightly.
“He’s very dangerous. And knowing he’s a Mexican warrior, I expect a tough fight from him,” said Viloria, now in the final stage of his training at Oxnard, California under guru Robert Garcia.
Viloria is making the first defense of the IBF crown he wrested from another Mexican, the durable Ulisses Solis, during their title fight at the Araneta Coliseum last April.
The 28-year old champion from Waipahu, Hawaii won by way of an 11th round knockout, raising his record to 25-2 overall, with 15 knockouts.
Viloria was a former World Boxing Council (WBC) light flyweight champion and was part of the US boxing team to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Iribe sports a 15-5-5 card with 9 KOs , although he’s coming off two knockout wins over Angel Rezago last June and Faustino Cupul in April.
This marks the second time he’ll be vying for a world title.
His first attempt ended in a 12-round unanimous decision loss to WBC light flyweight king Edgar Sosa in February last year. Incidentally, Viloria also lost to Sosa by majority decision for the vacant WBC 108-pound belt in their title bout in February 2007.
Another notable opponent of Iribe in the past is Raul Garcia, who dealt the Mexican an eighth round TKO loss in 2007 when Garcia had yet to win the IBF minimumweight championship.