It was only a few years ago when the career of Brian Viloria seemed headed to the dustbin. Two years ago, Viloria was staring at the ceiling of a hospital with both his life and boxing career under intensive care.

Viloria was coming off a 12th-round technical knockout loss to Colombian Carlos Tamara at the Cuneta Astrodome, and the way he collapsed in the fight convinced many that the “Hawaiian Punch” had stirred his last drink.

Fast forward to the present time: the “Hawaiian Punch,” supposedly in his dog years at age 31, is on the crest of an intoxicating six-fight winning streak, with the last victory arguably the most riveting in his career. In a slugfest opposite Mexican slugger Hernan “Tyson” Marquez, Viloria exhibited toughness and threw punches like he had never let his hands go before. In a fight that produced as many fireworks as the movie The Expendables, Viloria survived many harrowing moments to hack out a 10th-round technical knockout victory.

The Viloria who fought listlessly and lost a humiliating 12-round decision to Mexican Omar Niño Romero in August 2006 was nowhere to be found in the Marquez fight. Viloria floored Marquez in the first round and was in control of the fight until the fifth round, when Marquez roared back by clipping the former with some thudding blows. Viloria countered well and even managed to score another knockdown in the fifth stanza, but in the succeeding rounds not a few noticed that the fighter’s legs and chin seemed to be hatching a devious plan to leave the arena ahead of schedule. Sensing the same thing, Marquez came out with both guns blazing in the 10th round, flustering Viloria with an assortment of punches. Viloria was under duress and looked ready to lock lips with the canvas when he unleashed a counter left hook that caught the wild-punching Marquez right on the button. Marquez landed flat on his back and while he showed a lot of heart in beating the referee’s count, trainer Robert Garcia had seen enough and threw the white towel of surrender.

Viloria improved to 32-3 with 19 knockouts and notched his sixth straight victory since the catastrophic loss to Tamara. He unified the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and World Boxing Association (WBA) flyweight (112 belts) and, more importantly, re-established himself as a marketable force in the sport.

A former United States olympian, Viloria actually got off to a sizzling start as a pro, winning his first world title (the World Boxing Council light flyweight title in 2005) with a devastating first-round knockout of Mexican Eric Ortiz. Amid the huge expectations, however, Viloria crumbled like a deck of cards. Viloria’s career hit rock bottom after the loss to Tamara. He could have given up at that point, but Viloria kept the faith and on his own worked his way back to title contention.

After two confidence-rebuilding wins to close 2010, Viloria exploded in July 2011 by decisioning Mexican Julio Cesar Miranda for the WBO flyweight title. Viloria has since posted three successful defenses of the title, all by knockout. He stopped former WBA-WBO light flyweight champion Giovani Segura in 8 rounds in December 2011, ex-WBC light flyweight king Omar Nino Romero in 9 in May 2012 and incumbent WBA flyweight king Marquez in his most recent outing. The road figures to be bumpier for Viloria as he gears up for a possible title defense next year against undefeated (34-0, 28 knockouts) WBA light flyweight king Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez of Nicaragua. Gonzalez is granite-fisted and is a more polished version of Marquez, but he figures to have his hands full against the revitalized Viloria.

Viloria has successfully re-introduced himself to the world of boxing. Borrowing some lines from the songs of the Black Eyed Peas, Viloria hurdled major humps and is now back in “Boom Boom Pow” form. Where is the glove? It’s definitely back with Viloria, or make that Vil. I. Am.

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