Pictured: New IBF Junior Flyweight Champion Carlos Tamara

Earlier today at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines, WBO mini-flyweight champion Donnie Nietes stopped Mexico's Jesus Silvestre and, in the main event, 2004 Olympian Carlos Tamara took the IBF junior flyweight title from 2000 Olympian Brian Viloria, dramatically coming from behind to do so.

The WBO champ at 105 pounds, Nietes of the Philippines, TTR's #4 ranked minimumweight, stopped the TTR unranked Silvestre at 1:37 of the 10th and final round of a non-title junior flyweight bout. (The bout had been announced as being in the minimumweight division but both fighters had weighed in at 107 pounds.) The masterful Nietes, who was originally scheduled to defend his title against Ivan Meneses, improved to 26-1-3 with 15 KOs. Silvestre, down in the first round from a Nietes right uppercut and way behind on points at the time of the stoppage (TTR had Nietes ahead 88-82), fell to 15-2 with 12 KOs.



It should be noted that Meneses, who withdrew from the fight claiming managerial problems, is now scheduled to challenge WBA minimumweight champion Roman Gonzalez on January 30.

In the much anticipated main event, TTR unranked Tamara, the IBF's #7 ranked contender, annexed the IBF junior flyweight title by halting Viloria, the defending champion and TTR's #4 ranked junior flyweight, at 1:45 of the 12th round. Badly trailing on points, Tamara launched his attack in the ninth round. After sweeping the 9th, 10th, and 11th frames, Tamara threw combination after combination at the visibly depleted champion in the 12th. He drove Viloria back to the ropes and kept the pressure on, giving referee Bruce McTavish no choice but to rescue Viloria from further punishment.



It was a stunner. Viloria seemed, through eight rounds, to be on his way to a fairly easy victory. After three feeling out rounds, two which TTR gave to Viloria and one, the second, which Tamara won, the Filipino-American from Hawaii won a one-sided fourth round. He hurt Tamara with a terrific body attack and with a solid right to the jaw. Viloria punctuated his dominance in the fifth with a big left-right combination and won the sixth again with his body attack. In the seventh, Tamara seemed to be on his way to capturing the round when Viloria came on strong during the final minute, blasting away at the challenger with a big right and a wicked left. The eighth was all Viloria as he repeatedly landed power shots.

Then came the ninth, in which Tamara initially switched to southpaw and scored well. When he first switched back to the orthodox stance, Viloria landed a few shots but the New Jersey-based Colombian took over and stayed busy until the bell. During the first half of the tenth round, the two combatants exchanged power shots but in the second half of the round, Tamara kept slinging the leather while Viloria's output lessened considerably. In the eleventh, Viloria came out throwing but was hurt by Tamara who kept firing combinations at the champ. The challenger's late fight work rate was too much for the two-time, and soon-to-be-ex, champion and in the 12th, Viloria's second reign came to end.

With his great come-from-behind victory, Tamara is now 21-4 with 15 KOs. He is now a world champion two days shy of two years after his first world title shot when he lost a unanimous decision to WBO flyweight champion Omar Narvaez in Argentina.

The dejected Viloria, who was tentatively slated to meet WBO junior flyweight champion Ivan Calderon in a title unification bout later this year, dropped to 26-3 with one No Contest, one No Decision, and 15 victories by knockout.

Two other bouts on the card were also televised and, like Nietes-Silvestre and Viloria-Tamara, were shown on TTR.



17-year-old lightweight Jason Pagara of the Philippines upped his record to 21-1 with 10 KOs with a majority decision over Indonesian Eddy Comaro. The scores were 95-95, 96-94, and 98-92. TTR agreed with the 96-94 tally. Comaro slid to 22-7-5 with 8 KOs (as per BoxRec and Fightnews) or 25-5-3 with 10 KOs as per the Indonsian Boxing Assosiation/Asosiasi Tinju Indonesia (IBA/ATI).



In a non-title junior welterweight bout (announced as a lightweight contest), Filipino veteran Jimrex Jaca, returning to the ring after a 15-month layoff, knocked out IBA/ATI junior welterweight champion Ramadhan Weriu at 1:37 of the 5th round. A five-punch combination started by a crunching fight uppercut and finished with a devastating left cross dropped the game but outclassed Weriu for the full count. Jaca improved to 29-6-3 with 14 KOs while Weriu plunged to 13-3-1 with 12 KOs.