MANILA: Hawaiian Brian Viloria was rushed to a hospital from apparent exhaustion soon after his TKO defeat by Colombia’s Carlos Tamara of Colombia in Saturday’s IBF light flyweight title fight, a boxing official said. Referee Bruce McTavish stopped the fight 1:45 into the 12th and final round.
Soon after the bout ended, Viloria was taken from his locker room and rushed to a local hospital in an ambulance.
His camp did not immediately give details of what happened inside the room after the fight.
Viloria was later transferred to the Makati Medical Center for more tests, including a brain scan, said Nasser Cruz, head of the boxing division of the Philippine Games and Amusement Board.
Doctors at the hospital found nothing wrong with Viloria after he underwent neck and chest x-rays and a brain CT scan, Cruz said.
“It appears all the results were favorable,” he told The Associated Press. “In my view he was very exhausted. ...
He had no knockdowns. He just got really tired.” “Even if you are conscious, as long as you had a difficult fight - he delivered a lot of punches and he also received many hits - it’s just a regular thing to undergo a check up,” Cruz added. Neurologist Regina Macalintal of the Makati Medical Center told DZBB radio that Viloria was in a stable condition.
“He is doing good. He just needs to rest in the hospital for one or two days.” She said Viloria did not need any surgery and a minor cut to his brow was sutured.
Boxing analyst Ronnie Nathaniels told DZBB radio he spoke at the emergency room with Viloria, who complained of a “severe headache.” The emergency room doctor who attended to Viloria at the first hospital, Dr. Ernesto Gonzales, said Viloria was taken to the first hospital because he “felt weak” but was conscious when he arrived on a stretcher. “All I can say is he was stable from the time he arrived until he left,” Gonzales said.
Asked by reporters how Viloria was doing, his trainer, Robert Garcia, said, “He’s fine.” Viloria was in control early in the fight at the Cuneta Astrodome in suburban Pasay city but he slowed down starting in the seventh round and Tamara took the ascendancy.
Viloria appeared exhausted and received numerous hits to the face toward the final rounds. He suffered a cut above his left eye. He fell twice after swinging and missing Tamara and had to be helped to get up by the referee in the final round.
Viloria wasn’t returning punches from Tamara as he staggered against the ropes when McTavish stepped in to stop the fight.
“I was confident about this fight,” said Tamara, a veteran of the 2004 Athens Olympics. “My team knew this was my chance to become a world champion. Brian is a tough fighter.” Viloria, a former WBC light flyweight champion, claimed the IBF belt with a knockout of Ulises Solis in the Philippines in April last year, and defended the title with a unanimous decision over Jesus Iribe in Honolulu in August.
