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Brian Viloria and Omar Nino are again going to have to wait for their trilogy fight, as the bout originally scheduled for March 31 and pushed to April 21 has now been moved back until May 12.
The fight has been pushed back again due to the fact that Nino still owes $11,500 in penalties to the Nevada commission, which means that the WBO won't sanction the fight. Viloria currently holds the WBO flyweight title.
The two first met in August 2006, with Nino pretty well dominating Viloria in Las Vegas, taking Viloria's "0" and his WBC junior flyweight belt. They met again three months later on the Pacquiao-Morales III undercard, going to a majority draw, though this time the result was changed to a no-contest when Nino failed his post-fight drug test. Nino gave up the WBC belt, and lost an eliminator in his next bout against Juanito Rubillar.
Nino (31-4-2, 13 KO) would regain the WBC 108-pound belt in 2010, beating Rodel Mayol. After a successful defense against Ronald Barrera, he dropped the strap to Gilberto Keb Baas five months after winning it, and since then has fought just once, beating a scrub in February of this year.
Viloria (30-3, 17 KO) has had a famously inconsistent career, turning in some fantastic performances (wins over Ulises Solis and Giovani Segura, for instance) and others where, even when he wins, he just doesn't look like much. But while so far his career has focused more on disappointment than glory, he is a two-division titleholder and right now could be argued as the No. 1 flyweight in the world, right there with Tyson Marquez.
This fight seems personally important to Viloria, but you have to wonder how much time the 31-year-old Filipino-American should spend trying to get Nino into the ring. Nino, 35, isn't the fighter he was five years ago and isn't a true top contender at this point -- is it worth what's turning out to be quite a bit of hassle?
If the fight does go down it would be, as of now, unopposed on American TV by HBO or Showtime, neither of whom have fights scheduled for the date, which comes one week after Mayweather vs Cotto (so, technically, they would be opposed by the replay on HBO, which is a pretty big thing, but anyone interested in Viloria-Nino III will have seen it). Integrated Sports PPV will be producing the show.