By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Hall-of-Fame referee Joe Cortez has been named by WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel as the referee for the WBO world flyweight title fight between former two-time world champion Brian Viloria (28-3, 16 KO’s) and current title holder Julio Cesar “Pingo” Miranda (35-5-1, 28 KO’s) of Mexico.

Viloria has moved up in weight and will battle ” Miranda at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii on July 16.

Other officials named for the bout which will take place at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii are judges Robert Byrd, Ruben Garcia and the Philippines Atty. Danrex Tapdasan.

The WBO supervisor will be vice president for the Asia Pacific region Leon Panoncillo.

Viloria’s manager Gary Gittelsohn told the Daily Inquirer that he gave into the financial demands of Miranda’s handlers because he “just wanted to give Brian the opportunity. I don’t want him to wait any longer. He’s been working real hard in the gym and a tune-up fight at this point is only going to delay things.” Viloria who has been training both in the Maywood Gym in California and recently at the Kalihi Gym in Honolulu plans to return to California to wind up his training.

Viloria told boxing writer Jason Kaneshiro of the Honolulu Advertiser “Each fight I treat it the way its supposed to be treated, real serious. No different for this one. The way I look at it, there’s more motivation for me. There’s a lot of things riding on this fight; a world title, I’m coming into the last few legs of my career so it’s that much more important for me to do well and win another one.”

The 30 year old Viloria won the WBC light flyweight title with a sensational 1st round knockout of Eric Ortiz on September 10, 2005 but subsequently lost the title to Omar Nino Romero. Viloria then went after the IBF title which he won with a spectacular 11th round knockout of the highly fancied champion Ulises Solis of Mexico on April 19, 2009.

Since moving up in weight after losing by a 12th round TKO to Carlos Tamara of Panama in an IBF title defense where he was well ahead on the scorecards of the judges at the time of the stoppage by referee Bruce McTavish, Viloria has scored back-to-back victories that put him in line for the title shot.

He won a ten round split decision over Omar Soto on July 10, 2010 and then scored a 7th round TKO over Thailand’s Liempetch Sor Veerapol on November 5, 2010. Liempetch is the same fighter who was knocked out in the 1st round by undefeated Froilan Saludar in a WBO Youth world flyweight title bout last February 19 in Imus, Cavite.

Gittelsohn said Viloria has been training under a team led by Ruben Gomez with former fighter Jose Morales who “is really terrific on the conditioning end and great with the mitt work and goes running with Brian every morning at Griffith Park..” Also in Viloria’s corner will be Ruben Salazar who has been with Viloria since he was a young fighter and is confident Viloria will be a world champion once again.

Viloria’s manager said “I am really proud of his condition. He really looks good. I’m proud of his work ethic and the kind of determination that he needs in order to win. This is going to be a very tough fight against a very solid champion and Brian has his work cut out for him.”

Miranda won the vacant world title with a 5th round TKO of Filipino Richie Mepranum on June 12, 2010 and in his last defense scored a 4th round TKO over another Filipino Arden Diale last February 26.