FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Francisco Veron took an important step towards contention in the junior middleweight division, outfighting gatekeeper Roiman Villa on Friday night here at the War Memorial Auditorium.
The scores were 100-89, all for Veron, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, who improved to 16-1-1 (10 KOs). Villa, 27-4 (25 KOs), of Bogota, Colombia, suffered his third loss in four fights, with the other two coming by knockout to Jaron Ennis and Ricardo Salas.
The 10-round fight headlined a ProBox TV card.
Veron came out aggressive early on, firing away with right hands at the opening bell. Villa showed patience, covering up and waiting out the storm. He picked up the activity in the third round, cutting the inside of Veron’s lip with an overhand right along the ropes and landing heavy shots to the ribs. Veron began to take over the fight in the fifth round as a counter right sent Villa into the ropes near the end of the round. Although Villa had shown durability early on, he began to show the effects of the damage in the sixth, when a straight right hand knocked his head back.
With the fight slipping away, Veron made a big statement in the ninth, rocking Villa with a left uppercut followed by a right hand to produce the lone knockdown in the fight.
The 27-year-old Veron, who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, is promoted by ProBox TV and is rated No. 14 by the WBC at 154lbs.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
