Ruben Villa is now rated No. 1 by the WBC within the featherweight division. Whereas he has his eyes set on a title, he additionally has an excellent greater aim and hopes to face Naoya Inoue.
Villa is aware of that to win towards Inoue, he would wish to make use of every little thing he has realized from his whole profession, each newbie {and professional}, and he returns to the ring on Saturday towards Sulaiman Segawa in a 10-round bout on the Palms On line casino Resort in Las Vegas.
Since shedding a vacant WBO featherweight title combat to Emanuel Navarrete in 2020, Villa (22-1, 7 KOs) has received 4 straight fights. The 27-year-old from Salinas, California, is raring for an opportunity on the title that has eluded him. Standing in his approach is 33-year-old Segawa (16-4, 6 KOs), who just lately misplaced to undefeated Mirco Cuello however beforehand had crushed Prince Dzanie and knocked out Misael Lopez.
“He’s simply one other opponent in the best way to get to my world title,” Villa informed BoxingScene. “I imagine I’m among the many finest within the 126 lbs division. I’ve been doing this for a very very long time, and I’m simply ready for my second.”
“I really feel like each combat I’m in is action-packed, however I do must maintain that up in order that the followers could be excited to see me in a world title combat,” Villa added.
Villa faces a conundrum. The WBC featherweight titleholder Rey Vargas retained his title by combating Nick Ball to a attract March. Brandon Figueroa is the interim WBC featherweight titleholder, so a consolidation bout is probably going earlier than Villa will get a title shot.
When requested if he want to combat Inoue sooner or later, Villa wasted no time in saying: “Hell yeah!”
“You would need to break him mentally. He’s clearly too robust; you may’t sit there and attempt to combat with him. I really feel like I must use each ability I’ve to beat Inoue. He’s badass – I would wish every little thing in that combat.”
Villa additionally mirrored on his solely loss, which occurred almost 4 years in the past, to Navarrete.
“It was simply actual awkward,” Villa stated of Navarrete’s type. “That bizarre uppercut jab coming from his knee was bizarre – I didn’t see it.”
That punch made the distinction within the combat, inflicting Villa to go down twice and lose a unanimous determination to the three-division world titleholder.
“I fought top-of-the-line featherweights, not less than,” Villa mirrored on his combat with Navarrete. “What makes him good is how awkward he’s. It really works for him; it’s arduous to coach for.”
