Brian Viloria returned home to Waipahu for the first time as a world champion on Friday, nearly three months after his stunning first-round knockout of Eric Ortiz in Los Angeles for the World Boxing Council light flyweight title.

His visit, though, will be a quick one as he heads back to L.A. tomorrow to resume training for a Feb. 18 title defense in Las Vegas against Mexico's Jose Antonio Aguirre, a former world champion himself.

Aguirre, 30, has a record of 30-4-1 with 20 knockouts.

"He's very tough, very durable," Viloria said. "I think I'm faster than him and I have more power, but he has a lot more experience than I have. I'm going to work hard to try to take the fight to him."

With such a short vacation in Hawai'i, Viloria is making the most of it. After arriving Friday afternoon, he grabbed some of his beloved local food and made some calls to family and friends before heading to the Waikiki Shell for a Honolulu Marathon concert and lu'au, where he got in a quick ukulele jam session with Jake Shimabukuro.

Yesterday, Viloria was a guest on Perry and Price's morning radio show and then signed autographs for two hours at the Marathon expo in the Hawai'i Convention Center.

Viloria, who turned 25 on Nov. 24, is accustomed to whirlwind schedules by now as winning the world title has filled his calendar with an endless list of activities.

"It's been really crazy," Viloria said. "I get invited to a lot of parties. But I've been training for the last 1 1/2 months, trying to stay in shape."

After waiting almost five years for his title shot, Viloria is soaking it all in yet taking nothing for granted. His record is a spotless 18-0 with 12 knockouts, but the road to a world championship was anything but smooth after representing the United States in the 2000 Olympic Games.

Viloria started his pro career quickly but then went through problems with his original promoter, Lou DiBella, which left long gaps between fights. After severing ties with DiBella in late 2003, Viloria was without a promoter for a while, although Sugar Ray Leonard stepped in to promote a couple of bouts in 2004.

Viloria then had three fights either postponed or canceled in an 11-month span, including the original title fight against Ortiz last July.

Gary Gittelsohn, Viloria's manager, said those trials were an unfortunate but not uncommon aspect of the sport.

"That's just boxing, it's not just Brian," Gittelsohn said yesterday in a phone interview from Germany. "Brian got a taste of the pro ranks, which is much different from the amateurs."

Then came another unexpected stumbling block May 28.

Viloria's opponent that night, Ruben Contreras, quit in the sixth round complaining of a headache. He had a seizure less than 10 minutes later and needed surgery to stop a hemorrhage around his brain. Contreras was taken to a hospital and remained in critical condition, in a coma, for 10 days.

He eventually recovered, but Viloria's genuine concern for his fallen opponent threatened to disrupt his focus on training. He was relieved to see Contreras at ringside just before the Ortiz fight Sept. 10.

"To see him smiling and lively like he was, that was even better than winning the title," Viloria said. "To me, that was one of the most beautiful things I've seen. I almost broke down."

Viloria had another weight lifted off his shoulders around that time when he signed a two-year contract with Bob Arum's Top Rank Boxing promotion team.

"I have great backing, I have full confidence in them," Viloria said. "Now I don't have to worry about when my next fight is."

Viloria declined to disclose financial terms of the deal, but said the guaranteed minimum per fight is "much more than I made before," and it could include appearances on HBO. The Feb. 18 fight at the Aladdin Resort and Casino is a co-feature event that will be televised on pay-per-view.

"They said I have big marketability," Viloria said. "It's all there for the taking."

Gittelsohn said Viloria "is in the 'A' game right now."

"Brian's career finally is at the place we always dreamed it would be," said Gittelsohn, who has been Viloria's manager since he turned pro. "He fought a very capable champion and knocked him out in the first round, and that brought the entire Staples Center crowd to its feet. Bob Arum is the one who brought million-dollar fights to the lighter weights, and he and the people at Top Rank couldn't be more pleased with Brian.

"I'm so happy for him, too, because he deserves all of this. He's just a tremendous young man."

Viloria's quickly expanding fan base is reaching deep into the Philippines, especially after the victory over Ortiz. Photos of Viloria waving the Philippines' national flag appeared in newspapers around the world.

"Up to that point, most people always thought of me as an American, a fighter from Hawai'i," Viloria said. "That's what I am, and I'm not trying to shy away from that. But I'm also Filipino, my father is from the Philippines, and I wanted to show my roots. I wanted to show people that there's another Filipino fighter out there, and hopefully that will create a lot more fans."

But Viloria is just as loyal to his Hawai'i roots, and pines for a title defense in Honolulu. His last fight here was April 15, 2003.

"This is where I got started, and it's where my hometown fans are," Viloria said. "Hopefully, now that I'm a champion I'll have more pull as far as where my fights will be."

Gittelsohn said logistics make a Honolulu fight difficult to put together.

"We'd have to overcome a lot of challenges, but we're on a collective mission to do it," Gittelsohn said. "It's a good possibility. We'll figure it out."

Outside the ring, Viloria is taking classes at UCLA and hopes to earn a bachelor's degree in either film or broadcast journalism in the next year and a half. He also enjoys playing the ukulele, guitar, piano and saxophone.

"I love playing music, I love computers and I love reading historical books," Viloria said. "I try not to be one-dimensional."

But for now, boxing has his full attention.

"Winning the title was a big relief, a big satisfaction," Viloria said. "After all the hard work and patience, it proved all the blood, sweat and sacrifice was worth it.

"And now it's opening even more doors."

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.