Ruben Villa Returns To Sacramento After Hometown Fight

By Steve Kim

Featherweight hopeful Ruben Villa faces Ricardo Lopez this Saturday night from the Omega Products International in Sacramento, California. Back on April 14th, Villa (11-0, 4 KO's) performed in his hometown of Salinas at the Storm House, defeating Marlon Olea over eight rounds.

"It was good, it was different," the 21-year old southpaw told BoxingScene.com.

"I took it more serious and wanted to give my hometown a good fight. I managed to stay focused and not let the crowd get to me. I didn't want the crowd to over-hype me and get caught with some stupid shots. I just kept my composure and the night went pretty good."

Villa, captured the WBO youth featherweight title by defeating the reluctant Olea, who didn't engage much over the fight.

"My team had a feeling he was going to do that after the first two rounds so they just said to keep my jab out, keeping getting out of his angles for him to catch me. So I listened to my coach and he started opening up a the end and I just didn't want to get caught with nothing at the end," said Villa, who is co-promoted by Thompson Boxing and Banner Promotions.

Last July 1st, Villa fought at this same venue he will be performing at this weekend. Sacramento is about a three hour drive from Salinas.

Villa says - ''I'm going to have quite a few fans, maybe more than a hundred. I have a lot of family out there, too, in Sacramento. So we have a lot of people going down."

Co-headlining on this card is undefeated heavyweight, Laron Mitchell. This show will be streamed on the Thompson Boxing website (ThompsonBoxing.com) and their Facebook page beginning at 10:45 pm, ET/7:45, PT)

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.