WBO official tells Brian Viloria: defend belt

Photo by AP

MANILA — The WBO championship committee headed by Luis Batista Salas wants newly crowned flyweight champion Brian Viloria to defend his title against former light flyweight champion Giovanni Segura within 90 days.

WBO Asia Pacific vice president Leon Panoncillo said that Salas issued a letter stating that “the winner of the Miranda-Viloria Hawaii bout must face the mandatory No. 1 contender Giovanni Segura within 90 days.”

Viloria has said he is ready to face any title contender they put in front of him, including Segura (28-1-1, 24 KO’s), who ruined the undefeated record of Puerto Rico’s long reigning 108 pound champion Ivan Calderon with back-to-back knockout victories.

Like Viloria, Segura also decided to move up in weight after scoring a first-round technical KO over Eddy Zuniga last June 18.

While Viloria’s manager Gary Gittelsohn believes that Viloria probably deserves an optional defense before facing the power-punching Segura following the Filipino’s hard-fought twelve round decision over Miranda, Viloria told the Inquirer he would fight anybody his manager and promoters come to terms with.

“That’s what fighters have to do,” Viloria said. “They can’t pick and choose who they are going to fight. If a guy is out there and they put him up against you, you are going to have to fight him.

“That’s my mentality,” he added. “I’m not going to be scared and I’m just going to do my job and to be a fighter is my job.”