By Ryan Burton

Rising featherweight prospect Ruben Villa (15-0) returns to the ring on Saturday night at Omega Products International in Corona, California against Luis Alberto Lopez (17-1). The fight will top a ShoBox tripleheader that includes Michael Dutchover (12-0) versus Ramon Mascarena Jr. (10-0) and Saul Sanchez (11-0) against Brandon Leon Benitez (14-1).

This will be the Salinas, California resident's first main event on Showtime. To help prepare for the biggest fight of his career thus far, his team went down to Southern California for the second half of his training camp.

“I am pretty excited. I am very confident. Camp went well. We went down to Robert Garcia's gym for the last few weeks to get sparring," said Villa.

"It is a great atmosphere. He has a lot of champions and top prospects and the environment is great. We mostly sparred against prospects. Aaron Morales and Isidro Ochoa are who we sparred the most. It was great working with them."

Salinas is a small agricultural town that is located about an hour south of San Jose in Northern California.  The area has produced fighters such as Robert Guerrero of nearby Gilroy but is notch below Southern California which is home to several professional boxers and gyms.

As his fights get bigger Villa understands he will have to take his training camps on the road to get the best possible preparation.

“There isn’t much boxing or sparring in Salinas. When we have these big fights where we have to look good and shine we have to leave home and sacrifice and it makes you stronger and hungrier. Camps are more professional and the quality of sparring is a lot better down here," Villa told BoxingScene.com.

Villa's opponent isn't well known but he said that Lopez is very motivated and knows that he has a lot to gain if he is able to pull off the upset. Villa doesn't just want to win a fight that he is favored to win. He wants to make a statement.

"He is pretty aggressive. He is supposed to be my best opponent to date. We have prepared for the very best of him. We know that he is coming to win and we have prepared for that and expect him to give it his all," Villa said.

The 22-year-old understands the business of boxing and believes that just winning isn't enough.  He said that he won't be satisfied with just getting a victory. He knows that the better he performs, the better chance he has to keep fighting on television and that he will get higher profile fights.

"My main focus is winning this fight and looking the best I can. I don’t want to not look too good and leave a bad taste in the fans mouth. I want to put on a great show. Hopefully a win will get me bigger names and help keep me fighting on Showtime and keep getting better fights," he explained.

This fight will be Villa's second of 2019.  In January he outpointed Ruben Cervera on ShoBox in Louisiana. After having fought a total of 5 times last year and 6 times in 2017, Villa expects to maintain his high activity level this time as well.

"If there are no cuts or injuries I expect to get 3-4 more fights this year. I want to stay active and if there aren't any injuries that shouldn't be a problem," Villa stated while also saying that he hopes to get another hometown fight in the near future. "There haven't been any talks yet but for sure we want to fight in Salinas again. Both shows we have had did well and were sold out. Hopefully as we keep advancing we can make bigger shows," said Villa.

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